Natsuki the Vampire Slayer: A Slayer Forged
by KumoOokami
Summary: Into every generation a Slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a Chosen One. This is the story of Natsuki the Vampire Slayer and her Watcher Midori. Can they fight back the darkness? What are heroes made of? Yuri-scented BtVSverse-Fusion
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: The characters of Mai-Hime do not belong to me! They belong to Sunrise or someone.

DISCLAIMER: The universe of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and all of the awesome lore connected to it belong to the amazing Joss Whedon. I would recommend having at least a basic knowledge of the Buffyverse to read this fic without confusion. Though honestly, if you are a fan of Mai-Hime and somehow have –never- watched Buffy, I recommend that you stop reading my fic and go watch Buffy instead because you've been missing out all these years. ^^ This fic won't really contain any of the characters from BtVS canon other than cameos, but a sequel fic will.

(Author's note: No particular pairings, but rest assured it is yuri-flavoured.)

(Author's note for nitpickers: In strict BtVS canon India, The Slayer previous to Buffy did most of her work in Japan. For the sake of my story, I'm making it so that her father was stationed in Germany instead of Japan, so therefore she would not ever have met Natsuki. So far everything else minus Natsuki's story continues as per BtVS canon.)

(Alright kiddies, this ends the legalese/authornote Spam. Please make sure you are buckled in good and tight and wearing all of the necessary protective gear. Also I ask that you keep any extremities inside the vehicle at all times as many of the characters bite. Packing snivel gear to deal with any angst is also recommended.)

**A Slayer Forged**

Hokkaido, Japan: Autumn 1990

Toshihiko Kanzaki carefully schooled his face to not show the elation he was feeling as he entered the state of the art facility of his business. As far as anyone in the public knew, the First District was researching and developing better lasers as well as experimenting with holographic technology. In reality the First District employed over a hundred powerful sorcerers along with experts on the history of all things magical, demonic or otherwise supernatural.

Kanzaki was the current head of a centuries old offshoot of a secret society known as the Watcher's Council. Kanzaki's branch of the Council believed that they should spend resources to attempt to improve the Slayer-line. The main branch of the Council, being run by cowards, believed that magical experimentation of this nature was simply too dangerous to risk.

Soon all the years of searching by Kanzaki's ancestors were finally going to pay off. They had managed to get a complete copy of the original ritual used to infuse the demonic essence into an exceptional girl to create the First Slayer. While they had not managed to determine the type of demon originally used, they were able to locate a demon that they believed to be suited in both physical abilities and temperament to be the source essence of a Slayer.

The Uelfur Demon was selected to supply the essence as its main food source was other demons. These wolf-like Demons from the far north were very strong, fast and remarkably durable. All of the qualities that were necessary to make a Slayer. Also an Uelfur Demon forms close bonds with the other members of its pack and is extremely protective of other pack members as well as their territory. Some of the less animalistic species of demons had even been known to use tame Uelfur Demons as guard animals. _And what is a Slayer if not a glorified guard dog? _ The Demon was waiting in a temperature-controlled holding cell in the basement area of the complex under heavy guard until the Potential was secured. They had chosen a very young Potential from a small town in a rural area of Japan in hopes that the main branch of the Watcher's Council would not learn of the impending success of the ritual. Now all Kanzaki had to do was wait for his agent Nagi Homura to secure the girl so that they would be ready to perform the ritual next week.

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Nagi ran a delicate hand through his collar-length silvery hair, again trying not to laugh out loud at the idea that Kanzaki thought this plan could possibly work. Kanzaki had always been bad at reading people, but then Kanzaki while debatably as morally challenged as Nagi himself, didn't seem to realize that he was different from the majority of the population in those regards. Kanzaki didn't even consider the possibility that the girl's mother would turn the First District's offer down.

The offer was really laughable, a lame organized crime-style cliché. He was supposed to offer this woman, Saeko Kuga a large sum of money in exchange for her daughter. Granted it was an exorbitantly large amount of money and he was promising her that his organization would take _excellent_ care of her daughter, but really how could even someone so dense as Kanzaki think the woman was going to fall for that one? Yes she was an unmarried mother, and that was a bit of a stigma; yes she and her daughter had to make do on very little in the way of money. But still they were surviving, not desperate. Saeko loved her little Natsuki, she wasn't a druggie or mentally ill. Nothing short of her death would be enough to "convince" her to hand Natsuki over to the custody of the First District, especially given the short timeframe that Nagi had to work with to secure the prize.

Fortunately for Nagi's position in the organization and most unfortunately for Kuga-san, Nagi could quite easily arrange for the young mother's death. All he needed was to do a little bit of magic, and then he would have the young Natsuki in his possession to take back to Kanzaki. His boss wouldn't even have to know exactly what had befallen the late Kuga-san. Oh not that he wouldn't suspect Nagi had done something horrible to the young mother. Nagi knew that even if Kanzaki knew for certain he would only offer a token objection, a formality of moral superiority over his more ruthless colleague. Kanzaki knew as well as Nagi did that there was no room for error with the timing of the ritual, and because of that they needed to get the girl through any means necessary using a method that would insure that no one would be looking for her. Thank good fortune for Saeko's stuffy traditional Japanese father who had disowned his daughter for giving birth outside of wedlock or this would prove more difficult.

The dark rainy night was perfect to make certain this spell aroused no suspicions. Nagi gazed out the darkly tinted window of the company limo at the deserted oceanside highway. The cliff had a guardrail, but it was flimsy and not very well maintained, not to mention Kuga-san was already driving recklessly away from Nagi's vehicle, frightened by their earlier confrontation outside of the retail store where she worked.

Turning back to the spell ingredients lay out on the carpeted floor of limo, Nagi sat down cross-legged inside the circle he had drawn earlier. Luckily this spell wasn't dependant on the particular locations of the object being teleported or the place it was being teleported to. It only required the proper sacrifice, a lock on the essence of the object to be teleported, and that the caster be strong enough in conviction that his will be done.

Lifting the dagger from the floor he gazed at the bound girl across the circle from himself. She was a bit older than Natsuki and thankfully spoke no Japanese. He figured she was probably the child of some tourist that had gotten separated from her family. Her curly black hair fell into ever fearful, teary blue eyes. When she had first been kidnapped she had been unruly and loud, lashing out at her captors. That had been until Nagi had broken a few of her fingers and gagged her. Surely if her body was ever found it could cause an international relations incident for Japan, people being shocked to hear of tourists being randomly taken hostage and tortured for who knows what reason… but her body would not be found so it was no problem.

Effortlessly chanting the Latin phrases of the spell as though he spoke the language every day, Nagi casually drew the sharp dagger across the girl's throat. Not deep enough to sever anything too seriously and make her bleed out before the spell was complete, just enough to get the blood for the ritual and to make it look very serious. After all, he had threatened Kuga-san that her daughter would die a horrible death if she didn't hand the girl over, and that is what she would see as soon as this spell was complete. And he would have Natsuki.

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Saeko attempted once again to wipe the uncontrollable tears of fear and anger from her eyes as she continued to drive down the deserted dark cliff highway towards her parents' home. She knew they didn't want to hear from her, but she hoped that they wouldn't really turn her away with how scared she was tonight. She would not have believed that there were people so cruel living here in her small town as that little gnome that had threatened her and her daughter this evening.

Seriously, what kind of monster offers you the ultimatum of give us your daughter for money or you'll both die a horrible death? She had called his bluff and gotten in her car preparing to go home. But then she felt uncomfortable with the idea of going back to their deserted apartment just the two of them. What if that sick little man had friends and they followed her home? In a moment of panic she had instead taken the highway out of town towards her parents' house, hoping that her dad would offer her protection. Even though he had thrown her out of his house over five years ago when she had started showing signs of her pregnancy but no signs of a husband.

Now she was having second thoughts again about heading to her parents' house. Maybe she should have just gone to the police with the threat, even though she had been worried that they wouldn't take her seriously. At least Natsuki wasn't the type of child to be crying in her car seat in the back, even if the sweet little girl had been picking up on her mother's stress. Her sweet Natsuki with her long dark hair, adorable snub nose and gentle black eyes that always were so joyful whenever Saeko was around, as though she was someone truly amazing.

Her little daughter was a handful, always so full of energy and getting into all sorts of trouble at preschool or whenever her back was turned for a minute. Whether Natsuki was climbing trees, fearlessly chasing down dangerous looking dogs to pet or running up to sketchy looking people with motorcycles, raising her daughter had been a stressful adventure so far. However, Natsuki was truly the best thing that had ever happened to her, she would not have done anything about the last six years or so differently; no matter how badly Natsuki's father had treated her, leaving when he found out she was pregnant... at least he did one thing right. Natsuki was her sweet little angel.

Gazing back into the rear-view mirror Saeko gasped out loud in horror. She couldn't breathe. There was so much blood, dripping down her angel's neck. Somehow Saeko managed to get enough breath into her lungs to scream out in anguish, jerking the steering wheel to the side. She barely noticed as the car crashed through the flimsy guardrail, as the feeling of freefall as the car plummeted over the cliff was indistinguishable from the sinking feeling she already felt. The cold of the water seeping into the car, or the inability to breathe anymore as it closed over her head caused her no fear, and certainly no more cold or breathlessness than the thought of a world without Natsuki in it. _I'm so sorry my Natsuki, I will always love you my sweet, brave girl._

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Nagi carefully dabbed at the small amount of blood coming from his nose with his handkerchief, that spell had required a bit more power than he had anticipated. Still though he couldn't argue with the results. The mother was dead, and he had his prize.

Glancing at the new guest in his car he had to admit to being impressed at the difference between this Potential and the ordinary girl that he had kidnapped for the sacrifice. Even when the first girl had been angry, she had also been terrified. But this tiny little thing who was smaller than the curly haired girl only glared at him with cold black eyes. He could see the rage in them, but the child didn't attempt to scream or run, just kept her eyes on his. Those hard eyes betrayed no fear as finally she spoke, her high pitched and quiet child's voice flat of emotion, having a warrior's steel despite her age. "Where is my mother?"

Nagi attempted to smile sincerely at the little one, a difficult thing for him to pull off. He had always been told that his smile looked like a smirk, and his words always sounded slightly sarcastic. "Your mother has given you to us to look after, she said she could not take looking after you any longer, you are too much trouble."

The little girl scoffed at him, "You lie. My mother needs me, who will protect her if I'm not there?"

"Don't worry Natsuki, my people will look after your mother for you and make sure nothing ever happens to her." His dark brown eyes glinted in the moonlight. Turning away from the glaring little girl he called up to the driver to head towards the First District HQ. When he glanced back at the little girl he noticed a suspicious shine to her eyes, as though she were getting ready to cry, but when she saw him looking again her jaw clinched and she was again glaring at him, allowing no tears to fall. _A warrior born indeed. I know that Kanzaki said we should pick this one as she is unlikely to be in line to be Chosen, but that is hard to believe looking at this little thing! Magnificent she is, our little Natsuki._


	2. Chapter 2

Natsuki put her arms around her legs as she drew her knees up closer to her chest, attempting to fade into the corner of her cell. She was trying to keep up her brave front, but it seemed like forever since she had seen anything outside of the four, white concrete walls of her cell. There was only one small window close to the ceiling on the wall that her back was currently against. She had been watching the window for the first few days, wanting to make sure that she knew how much time had passed, but today she was beginning to feel a bit hopeless.

Her mother had not come to get her. Part of her was glad; these people were obviously very bad people and would probably not think twice of hurting her mother if she were here. Still, Natsuki worried. _I hope she's safe._ A soft almost soundless whimper escaped her throat, only to be quickly replaced by a feral, angry growl. This place was starting to break her, make her weak. For as long as she could remember Natsuki had felt that her identity was based off of being brave and protecting others. Being in this cage all alone with nothing to do but sit and think however was starting to make her a little crazy.

It should be time for food soon. She stared at the door of her cell impatiently. The food here was good at least; they gave her a lot of food, good meat, fish and vegetables. She had been fleetingly disappointed that there hadn't been any mayonnaise, but then that had made her think about how her mother would make her sandwiches to take with her to preschool because she was always more hungry at snack time than the other children. She missed her mother, but being reminded of home here made her feel like she might cry, and Natsuki refused to be weak in front of this enemy. The first couple of times that the guards had brought her food she had attempted to shove her way past them to escape but she never made it far. Every time they had either jabbed her with needles that left her unconscious and waking up with an upset stomach and headache, or more humiliatingly she had been simply manhandled back into her cell by one of the large guards.

Being powerless was frustrating to Natsuki, she knew that she was only a small girl, but she felt like she was meant to be stronger. She had always been the strongest child her age, though she never used her strength to bully others on the playground, preferring to play alone climbing on the monkey bars.

There had been one girl who went to preschool with her, a little girl named Nao, who while almost two years older than Natsuki, was small for her age and shy. She had bright red hair and pretty olive green eyes that had always been so sad. Natsuki didn't know the details, but apparently Nao's mother was sick. Some of the bigger kids saw the small redhead's shyness and sad eyes as a sign of weakness and took to bullying her on the playground and in the classroom whenever the teachers weren't looking. The first time she saw it happen Natsuki had taken one look into those sad fearful eyes and her whole vision had just turned tunnel. The edges around Nao and the three large boys that were tormenting her with cruel words faded to dark red, and before she knew it Natsuki was charging across the sand and had planted one small hard fist squarely in the middle of the largest boy's face, grinning ferally at the crunching sound that was the cartilage in his nose breaking.

The teacher had come running after hearing the boy's yell. She had been forced to sit in timeout for the rest of recess and they had called her mother. Still though, it was all worth it to see the look of awe and adoration in those olive eyes. Her mother had pretended to be mad at her in front of the teachers when she came to pick her up that afternoon, but as soon as they had left she had taken Natsuki to get ice cream. "I know you wouldn't have hit that boy without a good reason, but next time try not to get caught alright sweetie? I had a hard time getting you into that preschool that will watch you all day while I'm at work, and it would be really difficult to find you a new one."

Natsuki had promised her mother that she would be more careful. From then on she had made sure that Nao was always by her side at school. When defending her friend Natsuki set things up so that anyone bullying Nao would have to take a punch at Natsuki first so that way the teachers would hopefully hand out the punishments more fairly. _I hope Nao is doing okay without me._

_Still no food. They seem to be late today. _Bored out of her mind, Natsuki let her eyes fall closed hoping to fall asleep to pass the time. Surprisingly she did manage to sleep. When she opened her eyes again she did a double take when she saw through her small window that it was already dark outside. There was no sign that anyone had brought her food while she slept, and her stomach growled in protest. She stood, stretching out her small limbs that ached from sleeping on the hard cement floor, absently rubbing her belly trying unsuccessfully to ease the hollow pain caused by lack of food. Hearing the metal latch on her door open she glanced up expectantly, hoping that they were bringing food only to let out a growl when she saw that her visitor was Nagi, the man who had taken her from her mother.

The pale silver-haired male smiled his slimy smile at her, and suddenly Natsuki didn't think she could eat anything anyway. Just hearing his voice filled her with helpless rage, she only glared with hard dark eyes, knowing there was nothing that she could do against her captor. "Well Natsuki-chan, tonight is your big night! Are you excited? I know you're probably hungry, but we couldn't allow you to eat before the ritual. I'm so excited; you're going to be great Natsuki-chan."

Natsuki felt like her blood was on fire, Nao had always called her Natsuki-chan and it had made her feel this comforting warm glow inside. When she heard it in the slight man's voice the term of endearment was poisoned, she could tell it was designed to make her feel weak and less than him. She took a step toward him growling and clenching her small fists hard enough to draw blood, glaring up at him, never breaking eye contact or speaking. She had decided he was not worth her words. He would never be better than her.

She grinned ferally as Nagi took an involuntary step back before calling out for the guards in a slightly shaky voice. "Hurry up; we've got to get this little beast ready for the ritual." The words meant as an insult made Natsuki feel better; she much preferred it when the little liar didn't use her name.

Suddenly three of the largest, most muscled guards were in the cell with them, two chaining her ankles and wrists together, and one watching to make sure she couldn't try to get free from them and run for it. She noted with satisfaction that none of the guards made eye contact with her; she hoped that it was because they were at least a little bit intimidated by her stare. As the two guards chaining her finished, she turned her eyes back to Nagi just in time to see him leveling one of those dart guns at her. She tried to fight the darkness at the edge of her vision after the dart struck her in the shoulder, defiantly trying to keep her chin up and her eyes glaring into Nagi's infuriating smirking face, but less than thirty seconds later she had succumbed to the darkness.

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Kanzaki watched impatiently as three of his best security personnel and Nagi brought the subject into the cavern below the First District where the ritual was to be performed. The girl was still thankfully unconscious. For such a small thing she could put up a pretty good fight, especially since her guards had strict instructions to not injure her to the point of any serious damage. Her body had to be in top condition for tonight's ritual, failure was not an option. The alignment of the stars and planets would not be right for this ritual again in Kanzaki's lifetime, and he would kill all of the worthless grunts that worked for him in a heartbeat if they caused him to miss this chance.

Wordlessly the guards secured the small, dark haired girl to one of the two stone altars in the center of the cave. They took the greatest of care not to disturb the magic circle that had been painted around the altar with the oily black blood of some powerful demon that Kanzaki didn't himself know the name of. Magically lit torches on the wall filled the room with a dark reddish-purple glow and the scent of smoke and the putrid decaying smell of the demon fat the torches were coated in that gave the flame its unnatural colour. Kanzaki lamented to himself how ancient magical rituals rarely called for electric lighting and Febreeze.

On the other altar the equally unconscious body of the Uelfur Demon lay chained. Its large muscular body dwarfed that of the small girl, and indeed even the largest men in the room seemed small compared to the beast which was easily larger than even a full-grown male polar bear. With each slow, shallow breath it took a small cloud of tiny ice crystals exited in a mist from the beast's large nostrils. Like most demons related to creatures from the natural world, this wolf one was a perverted form of the beast it came from. Its fangs were a couple sizes too large for its mouth and yellowish in colour, hanging out of the large muzzle even though its mouth was strapped closed with heavy chains.

The beast was laid out mostly on its stomach, in a position similar to the girl's all four limbs securely shackled to the stone ground with heavy chains made from the strongest metals. The two rows of silver bone spurs down the beast's back that tapered in size as they reached its tail rose and fell slightly with each breath, and its two huge back paws tipped with silver bone-claws twitched slightly every so often, perhaps due to the beast dreaming even in its drugged sleep.

Two of the twelve black robed sorcerers that would be performing the ritual stepped forward, each holding an urn filled with more of the oily black demon blood. They anointed the creatures on the altars, putting some of the oily blood onto the foreheads and each cheek of both demon and girl, and then proceeded to create the remainder of the symbols in blood inside the circle that could not be painted in until no one needed to enter the circle again before the ritual was complete. Kanzaki wasn't sure what any of the specific symbols meant, but as the last one was completed and the sorcerers stepped out of the circle he felt his heart startle as the black blood suddenly began to glow with an even brighter violet light than the torches, including the blood that had been painted on the faces of the sacrifice and the vessel.

The four most powerful sorcerers who had the largest role in the ritual took their places outside the circle at the cardinal directions, while the remaining casters took their places behind them, the second rank one pace behind at the intermediate directions, and the third directly the lead four. Behind the casters stood two squads of security, all holding dart guns armed with a tranquilizer that might risk putting an elephant into a coma.

Kanzaki's breath reflexively caught in his throat as the head sorcerer drew back his cowl to reveal his gruesomely painted face and began chanting. As he uttered words from a language that had not been spoken in this dimension in millennia he also sprinkled bits of bone dust from a species of demon that rarely left the hell dimensions. The bits of dust ignited with blue fire, turning to blue smoke that sunk to the floor heavier than the surrounding air. As he continued his part of the ritual the floor soon became obscured with the faintly glowing blue smoke, though the glow from the runes of the magic circle could still be seen clear as ever.

After the smoke was completely covering the floor, the sorcerers at the east and west corners also pulled back their cowls and raised their ritual daggers that were also coated in the glowing demon blood. The sorcerer at the south corner raised her hands from her sides palms up and began chanting as well as the two with daggers slashed them viciously side to side, the sounds of the blades whistling through the air as a bright green light shot from them towards the two bound creatures on the altars.

Just as the light was reaching them both girl and demon suddenly regained consciousness, their eyes darting around the room filled with rage as they struggled futilely against their chains. Then both of them let out howls of pain as deep gashes appeared on their limbs and their chests in cross patterns.

Even as the cries of the vessel and sacrifice filled the room, the remaining sorcerers began to chant as well. This time a black smoke rose from the gashes in the demon's chest that seemed at once to absorb the light from the room and itself glow. The girl turned her head and her black eyes bright with unshed tears of pain locked with those of her fellow captive. Moments later her eyes were rolling back into her head as the black smoke forced its way into her body, her last strangled cry of anguish fading along with the demon's as she lost consciousness and it gasped its last breath.

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When Natsuki opened her eyes again, she was standing outside in a snowy field a short distance away from a cliff that had an ice cave in the side. Glancing down she was surprised to note that she was naked as even though it was certainly freezing here, she did not feel cold. _I must be dreaming._

Walking cautiously towards the cave on the off chance that she wasn't dreaming, Natsuki tried to remember what she was doing before she got here but her last memory was of talking to Nagi in her cell. As she reached the cave mouth she felt her heart rate pick up at what sounded like a large beast breathing. _Do not be scared little one, I will not harm you. My kind does not eat humans, especially not ones as small as you._ _Come step closer so that I may see you._

Walking into the poorly lit cave Natsuki easily located the beast when she saw its softly glowing green eyes in the corner. The large wolf-like creature was certainly the most awesome animal Natsuki had ever seen. Vaguely she hoped that the voice was really the creature and not her mind playing tricks on her. She had always wanted a wolf for a pet, but her mother had always insisted that they were very dangerous animals and did not make good pets. The beast let out a series of short, low grumbly noises that sounded almost like a chuckle, _Your mother was not wrong, wolves do not make good pets. I am not exactly a wolf though; I am the ancestor of a demon that looks like a wolf. I'm about much a wolf as a vampire is an ape._

"Oh… I guess that makes sense." Natsuki said hesitantly, her voice even here in her dreams seemed rough from disuse these last days. It did not really make sense to her, but she thought perhaps it was one of those things that she wasn't quite old enough to understand. "I'm Natsuki." She added, figuring it best to try to be polite to something that could eat her in just a couple bites, no matter what the beast had said about not eating her.

_I was once called Duran, though I have no name these days, as none has called on me for a long time. _To Natsuki the beast's mental tone made her think of how she felt when she thought of how Nao or her mother might be now that she had no way to contact them. Perhaps Duran had someone that he missed too.

"…Would you want me to call you Duran?" Natsuki asked hesitantly.

_…You may. _The beast paused, _Though I am not certain for how long we will be acquainted… The Powers That Be have reviewed your case. While they do not approve of the methods of these men who wish to grant you the powers of The Slayer they all recognize that the bravery you have shown in your life so far makes you more than worthy to be Chosen. _The beast's green eyes seemed to darken, _However there will be a price that your world will have to pay for having a second Slayer-line. _

Natsuki tried to pay attention to all that the beast was telling her, but most of what he was saying she didn't understand. "I don't get it. A price? And why should the world have to pay it? This was certainly that Nagi's idea, he should pay."

Natsuki again heard Duran's low rumbling chuckle, _You say his name with such disgust. You are right, he and those men do deserve to be the ones to pay, however they cannot hope to afford you. Do you understand? All of their lives are not worth yours. _It seemed vaguely wrong to her, but Natsuki could not find it in her to disagree. _Also, don't worry the Powers have agreed not to test the world with this price until you are much older and ready. They want you to succeed… and you will have help. The other Champions are not ready either. They cannot promise that you will succeed though, only that you will have a chance._

"Will I remember this when I wake up?" Natsuki questioned, vaguely remembering that she was dreaming. "…I am asleep right?"

_You will remember when you are ready…_

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Back in his office Kanzaki rubbed the bridge of his nose trying to dull the headache that had developed since the ritual had ended hours ago. Why couldn't anything ever go exactly as planned?

It seemed to Kanzaki that it had only been moments since the time the vessel had fallen unconscious. Several of the guards had been approaching the altar to unchain her and take her back to her cell for holding when chaos happened. Suddenly the girl's eyes opened, Kanzaki absently noticed that they were no longer black but now seemed much lighter though their exact shade was difficult to determine in the still poor lighting.

He again regretted the poor lighting as he attempted to blend into the background of the room, after all nothing good could come of the vessel's sudden awakening and there was no need for him to make a target of himself. Gods how he hated always being right, before any of the guards could react the girl had shot upright, breaking her chains out of the rock floor the sound of metal and breaking rock echoing through the now otherwise almost silent chamber. _It worked! We made a Slayer!_

Of course although he was elated he was also marginally afraid for his life. Slayers were not supposed to want to kill humans, but they were certainly capable of it and this was an experimental procedure. Fortunately the new Slayer had seemed mostly concerned about escaping rather than destroying everyone in the room, still being new to her strength she had managed to break some bones of several of the sorcerers and guards before they had finally gotten a couple of darts into her and knocked her out. Kanzaki also considered it lucky for Nagi that he had decided not to stay and watch the ritual, as the amount of anger in the Slayer's childish voice as she had shouted his name indicated that she might not have stuck to her 'only strike to disable' plan with him.

Kanzaki still couldn't help but smile to himself as he packed up his things to finally go home for the day… though looking out the window and seeing the lightening sky he noted it was already tomorrow. No matter that the Slayer had proven difficult to control, they had still done it. They had made a Slayer! True, it was too soon to try and test if the line of succession worked yet, they could not do the ritual again yet anyway if it did not. All that meant though was they would have to be fairly careful with her training for the time being, to avoid her being killed too soon.

_A couple years or so should be adequate._ He mused, that would give them time to gather the things for another ritual just in case. In the mean time they would find ways to more or less safely test the new Slayer's abilities, perhaps see how she responded to training and such. Also he had to find a way to make sure that the Watcher's Council in England was unable to detect the new magical signature. _It's so wonderful to be so busy! _He thought cheerfully as he turned out the light in his office and headed home for a well deserved nap.

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First District HQ, Japan: Late November 1992

It was taking most of Hirotaka Fujino's considerable willpower to simply keep his breakfast down. He was able to keep his expression mostly neutral only thanks to years of perfecting his professional mask. He had retired from the Watcher's Council ten years ago when he and his wife Sakuya had decided to start a family. He had taken this dangerous assignment only at the near desperate request of one of the Council's most respected witches.

It had been over a month ago that she had contacted him, saying that she had detected a most disturbing magical signature coming from near this area in Hokkaido. The signature was similar to that of a Slayer, but the current Slayer was halfway across the world in Tijuana with her Watcher, and had a magical signature that was just slightly different. Not as different as a witch and a Slayer or a vampire and a Slayer, but as different as two different varieties of apple or something similar. He didn't completely understand magical jargon, but it boiled down to the Council suspected someone had been experimenting in creating a new Slayer-line.

When Hirotaka had told his wife about the Council temporarily calling him back for one last assignment Sakuya had tried to forbid him to take it, after all their daughter Shizuru was turning nine in December and she had not wanted Hirotaka to be absent for her birthday. Still, after Hirotaka had made the case that this possible Slayer was probably a girl around Shizuru's age, maybe a little older she had reluctantly agreed that he could take the assignment.

Now after a month of not being allowed to have contact with his family in Tokyo he was at last inside the headquarters of the organization known as The First District. Much to his horror they did have an "artificial Slayer" whom they were treating like a lab rat. She lived inside a Spartan-decorated cell with a mechanical door that opened up into an arena area where they pitted her against various demons brought in from the field. According to the head "researchers" they had tried to give the Slayer a Watcher, but the girl had responded violently to their attempts to interact with her. Now the tasks of feeding her and allowing her exercise were done in an automated way: he even witnessed her meals being delivered through a small opening in the thick metal walls.

Hirotaka only prayed that his cover held and that he would be able to get word to the Watcher's Council without The First District learning that they had been infiltrated. If they became aware of the breach in time enough to move this Slayer it would be much harder to find the new location. Still, Hirotaka had faith in his skills and hoped that the Watcher's Council would be able to give this poor girl a better life. Perhaps he could even see about requesting that the Council allow the Slayer and her Watcher to live in his household, his daughter was around the Slayer's age, (A year older than the Slayer to his surprise.) and he had been seeking someone who could help train her in their family's traditional naginata. Now all he had to do was convince his wife…


	3. Chapter 3

London, England: December 1992

Stepping reluctantly out of the relative warmth of Heathrow Airport, Midori pulled her heavy grey wool coat tighter around her body to defend against the cold damp air of the London winter afternoon. After five years of travelling around the deserts of Northern Africa and the Middle East looking for various magical and demonic artifacts for the Council the weather of her father's home country was indeed foreign to her now. Certainly deserts got cold at night, but somehow the dry cold just didn't seem to sink into the bones as deeply.

Turning dark hazel eyes up to the slate-grey sky Midori breathed in the damp air feeling the slight sting in her lungs. It wasn't even as cold as it would get in her native Hokkaido in winter, the air was damp and cold, but it smelled of rain not snow. Very cold rain. Aah, good old England indeed, she had missed it so. Pulling her one small suitcase with her towards the curb, she ran an impatient hand through her thick dyed-red hair as she searched the surrounding area for the car the Watcher's Council had sent to bring her to the Headquarters.

They still hadn't told her exactly why she was even being summoned; only that the Council had a very important assignment for her and she had to come see them immediately. No asking if she wanted this mysterious new assignment, no thought on their part that maybe she would like to continue working with the charming older professor type Dr. Greenwood. Not that this was necessarily bad, she reflected. It's not as though Dr. Greenwood had ever given her any indication that he saw her as anything more than a talented young colleague, perhaps a protégé even, but never as someone to have romantic feelings towards. She'd tried everything short of morally questionable magicks to get him to notice her, but had been slowly accepting that nothing would be happening between them at least not in the near future. Still, it would have made her feel nice if the Council had at least pretended to care.

Her worn brown leather boots thudded heavily on the cement as she finally caught sight of the conspicuous looking black luxury town car, complete with smartly dressed young driver in his tailored suit and impeccably styled short dark hair standing next to it on the curb. It always both involuntarily impressed and annoyed her how much the main London branch of the Watcher's Council flaunted the wealth of the organization. Just as she was putting her bag into the opened trunk ignoring the young man's offer of assistance, she felt the first drops of cold rain hitting the tanned skin of her cheeks, sending the chill of the day deeper.

She rolled her eyes as she looked up from slamming the trunk shut a bit more forcefully than necessary to see the young man's eyes unconsciously drifting to the few drops of rain slowly trailing down her neck to disappear into her cleavage. Surely she'd dressed in clothes a bit more form fitting than was usual in the Old Boys' Club that was the Watcher's Council, but the kid looked like he'd never seen someone with breasts before. _Well even if I turned thirty this year, at least I've still got it._

Tired of being ogled in the cold rain, Midori again disregarded protocol as she jogged around to the front of the vehicle, opened the front passenger door herself and sat in the front seat. "Shotgun!" She called enthusiastically, chuckling a bit at the surprised look on the young driver's face. "Come on Junior let's get moving, Travers is no doubt getting his knickers all in an uncomfortable bunch waiting for me." She laughed louder as the flustered young man hurried around to the driver's side as quickly as he could without actually running. _Maybe this trip won't be all bad._

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Midori grimaced slightly as she double checked her appearance in the mirror of the small room where she would be staying for the next couple days while she was briefed on her new assignment. The room was obviously decorated to masculine tastes, but still the heavy dark wood bookcases and large comfortable looking chair along with the small bed with equally comfortable looking thick oversized dark wool blankets made the small room feel like home.

She had pulled her thick red hair back into a loose ponytail, and had chosen a casual fitted light blue sweater with a more conservative neckline than what she had worn on the plane, and a pair of nice black dress pants. On her feet however, she still wore her well worn dark brown leather boots, although she had bothered to clean them off a bit. She hoped that her look managed to convey that she cared enough about her appearance to put in a bit of effort, but that she didn't care about Mr. Traver's opinion so much that she was willing to get all dressed up for him.

Midori had something of a love-hate relationship with the Watcher's Council. From the time she when she was a young girl growing up in Hokkaido with her mother she had been told about how it was part of her family's tradition that they trained to be the guardians of the young girls who might be chosen to protect their world from the forces of evil. These girls were potential Slayers. It is a story at once ridiculous and beautiful, the story of the Slayer.

She remembered even now the first time her father had told her of the prophecy. _Into every generation a Slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer._

When she had first heard it, Midori had been in awe of the idea of such a mythical hero, and had asked her father if she was this Chosen One. He had simply shaken his head seriously, "No little one, that is not our role. Our role is to be this Slayer's teacher. We help guide her in learning how to effectively wield her natural strength and skill as well as offer our support so that she need not face the darkness of her calling alone. Some in our profession don't see our duty as exactly that, but this is what I'm telling you. The Slayer protects the world from the darkness, but it is the job of the Watcher to help protect and guide the Slayer, to use all of his knowledge and experience to give her the best chance she has in the fight."

After she had graduated from her last year of high school at sixteen and travelled to England with her father to begin Watcher training however, she began to see that not all of the Watchers seemed to adhere to his idealistic view of how a Slayer should be trained and treated. It seemed that lately the Council was treating the Slayer as little more than a simple weapon that they wielded instead of a young woman who needed a friend and mentor to help her to shoulder an impossible burden. She had almost quit the Council then but her father had convinced her to stay. He said that the Council would be around with or without her, and the more good Watchers who took their calling for the right reasons, the better chance there was that these girls, these Potentials who might be chosen and the Slayer herself, could lead lives as close to normal as possible.

Midori shook her head to clear her mind from the memories before grimacing as she grabbed her reading glasses from the dresser. She'd been reluctant to admit that she needed them, as she greatly disliked anything that might make her look old, but she knew that if there was a meeting with Quentin Travers then there would be paperwork, especially with a new assignment pending.

Still feeling a bit chilly Midori also removed a beat up, slightly oversized, dark brown leather coat from her pack. It had seen better days with patches of newer leather on the elbows and various other places, not all of it the same shade as the original. Still she couldn't bring herself to get a new one as it had been her father's, he had given it to her before her first assignment in the desert. He had died one year later without them being able to speak again. His funeral was the one time she had briefly returned to Japan since leaving at sixteen all those years ago. Her mother had passed only a year later. Her mother's family had never been close to her, even though she carried her mother's last name, as they had never approved of her marrying a foreigner, mostly because Midori looked and acted so much like her father. They hadn't even attempted to get in touch with her. She had found out in a letter from an old friend from high school who had been wondering why she hadn't attended the funeral.

Midori let out a soft growl as she roughly rubbed an eye with the heel of her palm frowning at the moisture in them. _Guess they haven't dusted in here recently_. Midori wouldn't disgrace her father by being overly emotional like that even if it was in the privacy of her room. Especially when she was getting ready to go see the head of the Council: Mr. Travers was not a man that one showed weakness to. And he was certainly just the kind of man to view emotions as weakness.

Slowly she made her way towards Travers' office, dusty boots clunking irreverently on spotlessly polished hardwood floors. She nodded politely to the few Watchers that she recognized and ignored the snobby down the nose looks of disgust from others. _Forgot just how much everyone in this place loves me._ She chuckled to herself, using the amusement from the pettiness of the place to lessen her nerves to an acceptable level. _For an organization that is in charge of training young girls to be warriors they sure do get offended by someone who looks like they sometimes get their hands dirty._

Reaching the glass paned outer door of Travers' offices Midori entered without pausing to gather any courage as she knew it would fail her once she was passed the mousey looking middle-aged secretary anyway. "Hey, I'm here to see Travers." She said by way of announcing herself.

The primly dressed secretary who had apparently been doing paperwork of some sort jumped slightly and looked up, thin lips narrowing with disapproval upon seeing Midori. "_You_ have an appointment with Mr. Travers?" The woman spoke, her tone indicating that she thought it more likely Midori had accidentally stumbled into their office off the streets, regardless of the security in place to prevent such things.

"Midori Sugiura," Her bored tone indicated that this whole thing was no big deal, "Travers called me in from the field, something about a new assignment. I just got back from Egypt last night." Midori let out a slight laugh at the look of shock in the secretary's squinty blue eyes when she actually saw the redhead's name on the appointment list.

"I'll just let him know you're here Ms. Sugiura." The woman spoke, now hesitant as she struggled to stand, stumbling slightly as high heeled feet attempted to support her rather portly frame. Midori tried somewhat successfully to repress her smirk as the brunette manoeuvred over to the door to Travers' inner office, knocking stiffly before opening the door slightly to poke her head in. "Sir, a Ms. Sugiura is here to see you."

Midori vaguely heard Travers' distinct emotionless, yet cultured tones stating that he was ready to see her. Her smirk was gone as she nodded in thanks to the secretary before heading into the richly furnished office of Quinten Travers, trying not to be obvious about wiping suddenly sweaty palms on her trousers.

"It is good to see you again young Ms. Sugiura."

"Just Midori please." she said, taking the offered hand and returning his firm handshake, wondering idly what kind of moisturizer he used to keep his skin so soft. "It's good to see you again too sir."

"Well Midori, have a seat please as our business might take a while to get through. Would you like me to have my secretary get us some tea?"

"No that's alright." She said, taking the slightly uncomfortable chair in front of Travers' large desk while he sat in the large custom-made leather chair behind it. Truthfully now that she was actually here in the same office as this strangely intimidating man for the first time in years, she didn't she should risk eating or drinking anything. "Your correspondence telling me to return to England was rather vague sir." She offered, hoping that perhaps getting right to business might calm some of her nerves.

"Indeed, but as the specifics or even general nature of your new assignment are all classified there was no helping the vagueness." His businesslike tone gave no hints.

"Classified sir?" She was beyond surprised; normally such missions would be given to one more experienced than her or at least someone in one of the Council's special divisions.

"I realize that it is rather irregular to give an assignment of this nature to one as green as yourself, but alas you are the only one who would be qualified."

The cold, dismissive tone stirred Midori's pride, "I assure you sir, I will be the best for this assignment. You can count on me to get the job done, no matter what it is."

The balding man's thin lips stretched out in what on another face might have been a smile. "Your youthful enthusiasm is quite reassuring. In fact, I am hoping that your youth might work to your advantage on this assignment." He opened the large, new-looking folder on his desk and seemed to hesitate as he looked at the information it contained. "I am sorry, but this is a difficult subject."

Midori was concerned; Travers was a man who always seemed to have an answer for everything. Even if his answer was one that Midori personally disagreed with, he was not a man who hesitated. "What is this assignment about sir?" She was further surprised when meeting his brown eyes, she saw that they seemed to contain concern, an emotion she had never seen the cold man display.

Travers' cleared his throat slightly before responding with a suspiciously roughened voice, "It would seem that a branch of the Watcher's Council that broke off from ours centuries ago has been… experimenting." He spat out the last word, his disgust with the notion clear. "They were attempting to… create a Slayer."

For a moment Midori was certain she had heard him incorrectly, but his grave expression mostly convinced her otherwise. "C-create a Slayer?" Midori asked around her suddenly tight throat, "I thought that was impossible! The first Slayer was created before humans even had writing to record such a ritual."

"We had thought that to be the case. However, it would seem that there was a record of the event in a demonic language that this faction was able to locate. They were able to complete the ritual two years ago, using a Potential so young and from such a remote community that we had not located her yet." He locked his eyes with Midori's, "We are not certain how old she was exactly when they turned her into a Slayer, but the operative who found the location of their facility said that she couldn't be older than his daughter who is only eight."

Midori gasped, "Eight? But Slayers aren't called until they are in their early teens at the very youngest!"

He dropped his eyes, "Yes… well as I said they wanted to make sure that we would not learn of anything happening to a Potential before they could complete their ritual. Apparently the ritual required the alignment of certain planets or some such thing and had to be performed when it was without interruptions."

As she pondered the implications of this disturbing information, one question was selfishly bothering her more than she thought it should. Still, she could not help but voice it, "This is rather disturbing. But, sir… I don't understand, what is my part here?"

Now he looked back at her, his eyes now shining with amusement, "Well Midori, I was hoping that you would be her Watcher."

Suddenly even the simple act of breathing seemed difficult. "You want me to be her Watcher? But sir, I only finished the basic training a few years ago and I have been doing research fieldwork this whole time… and don't only really experienced Watchers get assigned Slayers?" However even as she was questioning his judgment, she desperately wanted this. _That poor girl must feel so alone, she needs me. _She set her jaw, waiting for his response.

"Normally that would be the case, but as I have said this is a very unique circumstance. As an organization we unfortunately have more fluent speakers of ancient Sumerian and Latin than some extant languages and as she is from your home country, you are already one of the only Watchers qualified. Most of our other agents in Japan were found to be… compromised by affiliations with this rogue group. As for the remaining candidate, well let us just say that she did not respond well at all to him. We are also hoping that she might respond more positively to you since you are female and there were not many women who worked at the facility and none that she had regular direct contact with." His tone indicated his both his reluctance to entrust her with an assignment of this magnitude, but also his near desperation that she accept it which gave her a bit of hope.

"Of course I would be honored to be her Watcher." Her tone became steely, "But I won't have a mere child being assigned full Slayer duties, she is much too young! And she has been effectively held prisoner for two years, she needs to be allowed to catch up with her book education and learn to be human again not just train to be a Slayer."

"Don't worry Midori. She won't be training as a Slayer too seriously for a while yet. We don't even know yet exactly what her abilities are; we only have the biased reports of these bastards who did this foolhardy thing to go off of. Also as we have no records of any Slayer who has been called before puberty it is impossible to know what kind of effect that will have on her normal development or the extent of her abilities at this point." He paused to collect his thoughts a bit, "We are working with our contacts in the Japanese government to try to get you custody of her provided that she responds well to you. One of our retired agents, Hirotaka Fujino who also happens to be… independently wealthy, has offered you employment as a personal trainer for his daughter in naginatajutsu and for your Slayer to perhaps train with her sometimes."

"Fujino-san was a friend of my dad's." Midori commented absently, her mind reeling with the idea of having a Slayer, especially one with such unique needs.

"You must understand though, no one in our organization can know that another Slayer-line exists. Because of that you are officially being fired from the Council as of today."

"Uh-huh… wait, FIRED?" She turned hazel eyes back to his, angry. "How am I supposed to bloody support myself and my Slayer if I'm not employed with you all?"

"As I said, you will be working with Mr. Fujino. He will be reporting to us periodically in a coded way. He and his wife both come from rather wealthy families, you will find that you and your Slayer will be able to live quite comfortably. I am sorry Midori, but this is the only way I can think of to ensure the safety of both of you."

Midori sighed, she should have thought of that, "It's alright sir, I understand why now, this is just a lot to take in. This is really the last thing I was expecting to hear from you today."

"Indeed. Well the positive side to this is that the paperwork involved with being fired is significantly less than the paperwork involved with taking on a Slayer." His eyes again twinkled with seldom shown amusement, and Midori wondered at seeing this side of a man that she had previously thought to be just a cranky old bastard. "We will still perform the oath tomorrow night, but until then you can have some free time to prepare yourself for this assignment." Midori jumped as he suddenly raised his voice, "I am sorry Ms. Sugiura, but the lack of seriousness with which you treat your position is just not something we want in this organization. You are dismissed!"

Midori rolled her eyes at the smug look on the secretary's round face as she walked past her desk on the way out of Travers' office. She was going to have to take a cab to stay at some crappy motel until tomorrow night now, but still she had to fight to keep the huge grin off of her face. Even though she knew that this was going to be the most difficult thing that she had ever done. _I don't care how she was Chosen, my Slayer will do great things. And I will do my best for her._

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

They met the following night on a remote hilltop out in the countryside that had been warded by some of the most powerful wiccans in the Devonshire Coven so that passersby would not see it. Because of the covert nature of Midori's assignment they were performing an abbreviated ceremony with only herself, Travers and an officiator who had signed a magical contract that prevented him from ever speaking to anyone of this.

It took all of Midori's concentration to keep her feet moving as she approached the officiator to take the ceremonial dagger from him. Travers already stood at his place inside the magical circle holding the heavy magicked tome that held the records of every Slayer and her Watcher since the founding of the Council. "…Sir," She spoke hesitantly, wincing at how loud her voice sounded in the cold, silent winter air. "If my assignment is supposed to be secret, how is it that it can go in the records?"

Travers spoke sternly, his annoyance at her questioning him obvious, "Only the head of the Council is allowed to look at the official record. Now let us get on with this before we all freeze."

"Yes sir." She replied sheepishly, before stepping confidently into the circle. She was ready for this.

Travers then opened the old book, holding it face up on his palms. "The Watcher's Council calls upon Midori Sugiura to be the guardian of the new Slayer. It will be her task to help train the Slayer to fight the darkness in this world." He nodded to Midori.

"I Midori Sugiura vow to do all within my power to properly train the Slayer in strength and knowledge. I promise to assist her in her fight with all that I am. My magic is hers. My life is her life. I give my life to her success." Midori held up her right palm and with a quick motion slashed it deeply her face showing no hint of pain as she held it over the book, allowing her blood to drip onto its pages. "I give my life for the Slayer, I am her Watcher." Now tears came to her eyes which she did nothing to hide as she realized more fully just what having a Slayer meant. She was not so worried about giving her life, but knowing that her Slayer would likely lose her own life first… "My life is hers and I shall guide her in all things. I am her Watcher." She murmured softly completing the oath, and again lowering her hand to her side. She did not even hear Travers and the officiator finishing the ceremony she was so lost in thought.

"Midori!" Finally Travers' voice broke through the din of her thoughts. "It's done, let's get going before we all catch our death of cold out here."

"Of course…"

He gently took her elbow, guiding both of them carefully down the ill-kept path on the hill towards the car parked in the distance. "Now your plane leaves first thing tomorrow morning, we couldn't get you a direct flight even to Tokyo so you'll have to change planes in Hong Kong. Once you get to Tokyo you will be taking a private plane to Hokkaido where a driver should meet you to take you to the facility." He held out a well-stuffed envelope. "Here are your tickets, as well as all of the information we have about this Slayer. Good luck Midori, I have faith in you to carry out this assignment admirably."

"Thank you, sir." Midori replied, finding it difficult to speak. "I will do my best for her."

"I know you will."


	4. Chapter 4

(Author's note: Thanks for the great response to the first few chapters. Glad to hear that there are at least a few people interested in reading this story, makes a writer real happy. ^^ )

Re: Disclaimer: By virtue of this being posted on a fanfiction site, you can kindof tell it's not mine.

First District HQ, Japan; December 1992

Bright green eyes stared angrily at the cell door. Natsuki couldn't quite figure out what game her captors had been playing with her for the last week or so, but it was definitely something they had never done before. Since that night so long ago in the cave when she first became _strong_ her life had been so routine. She might even call it boring if she didn't know enough to realize that most people would not call being forced to fight all manner of monsters every day or so _boring. _

Back in the time _before_ when she lived with her mother instead of in this prison she had done things that she then considered to be boring. School for example, now she had only just started what her mother called "real" school where they were learning about reading, writing, basic math that sort of thing. She had always thought at the time how it was so boring and she'd love to never go to school again. Now though, she found that she missed it. Seeing other kids her age, even though she knew she was no longer "one of them".

She didn't know what kind of prank they were trying to pull on her. She had not gotten to fight anything in _days_ and they had sent some old guy saying that she should leave with him. She knew she was strong enough to take him out, but she just didn't want to risk what she might do if she got too close to him. It had been so long since she had gotten so close to another living thing without killing it, she didn't trust herself. She also didn't trust him to not do or say something that might make her _want_ to kill him.

Even though it was constantly drilled into her day after day that Slayers kill demons and vampires never humans she wasn't stupid. She knew a Slayer could easily kill humans, humans are weak. Slayers just aren't supposed to kill humans. Which worried her, because sometimes the humans that were in charge of keeping her here… sometimes she wanted to kill them. She could tell that the man who had been trying to convince her to come with him didn't really trust her either; if he did he would have opened the door that had the slot where the food came from. Instead he had just talked to her through it, in a voice that trembled slightly. Obviously he had seen what she was capable of. Perhaps he had lost some sort of bet with someone else on the staff.

She stood up and began pacing, all of this sitting around that had happened the past however many days was just starting to drive her crazy. Even _before_ her mother had always complained in a light-hearted fashion about how her little Natsuki didn't like to sit still for long. Now that she was _strong_ though, sitting without near constant fidgeting was impossible unless she was _hunting._ She had even completely run out of bits of wood to sharpen into stakes with one of her many knives. Thinking of her weapons brought a smile to her face. That was another one of the nice things about living here, not that she wouldn't give it up in a second if she could see her mother again… but her mother had always yelled at her when she so much as picked up a knife. These people let her play with _swords_ like on television! _Only I'm so much better with mine than any of those losers._

Picking up her favourite axe and twirling it a bit Natsuki frowned again. _If they don't let me fight something today, tomorrow the bed gets it._ Certainly the bed was made out of metal of some kind, but Natsuki figured with enough effort that bed could easily be destroyed, just like anything else. As Natsuki's eyes traced the carefully sharpened head of the axe her mind drifted to the last kill she had made with the weapon.

_Natsuki stepped out into the small arena, axe held ready as her sharp eyes skimmed the room looking for signs of movement. She thought for a moment that perhaps they had let her into the room before today's monster and that the opening of the other door she had heard before entering had been intended to throw her off guard, but then she saw it. There hunched over in a corner trembling fitfully was a roughly human-sized demon with what could only be called elephant skin. The thick, leathery skin seemed made for a demon half again his size, hanging in great rolls off of his face, neck and arms. Natsuki was also surprised to notice that he was wearing human clothes, as most pure demons unlike vampires did not try to blend in to human society to hunt. And it was obvious that even with the blue sweatpants and pink I Heart Tokyo t-shirt that this demon wasn't going to be doing any blending._

_Looking up and seeing Natsuki a look of relief crossed the demon's small muddy yellow eyes. "Hey there little one, my name is Liam. Do you know where this place is? Maybe we can help each other get out of here."_

_His words had caused strange feelings to stir in the young Slayer, he was obviously a demon but his presence did not cause the vague feeling of wrongness that being around a vampire or one of the more normal and violent demons she had faced here. Still, this was a demon and she was the Slayer, everything she knew about what she was said that it was her calling to kill this creature. "I am the Slayer." She spoke softly, surprised by the hint of apology in her tone._

_Those yellow eyes instantly showed fear greater than before as the demonic visage shifted a bit, teeth elongating and baggy-skinned fists raised in a defensive posture. "I-I'm not a fighter Slayer. My kind… my kind we don't hurt humans, I promise. Sure I do a little gambling now and then, b-but I'll stop if that's not the Slayer's rules."_

_Natsuki shook her head sadly, "I'm sorry but if you're in this room that means I have to kill you. Whenever I fail to kill something in here they don't feed me for a few days as punishment." She sighed, "I wish I could help, but this is all I can offer. Turn around and face the wall so you won't see me coming, I'll make it as painless as I can."_

It had been many sleeps ago even before this latest incident and she still had nightmares about that encounter more than any other. The uncontrollable trembling in the gentle demon's frame as he turned around to face the wall of the arena, how she almost hadn't been able to steel her resolve enough to approach quietly to make the blow. And then the horrible realization that those eyes still shone with fear for seemingly eternal moments as his head rolled across the floor before mercifully they glazed over with the stillness of death.

She still had not been able to bring herself to use this axe again even though it was her favourite, perfectly balanced with just enough heft. Her vision blurred slightly and for a moment the head of the axe again seemed to drip with the dark red blood of Liam, the same colour that hers was, not some exotic colour like some demons had. Growling softly she dropped the axe and grabbed her katana instead. Then she heard a familiar sound, the sound of the door on the other side of the arena. Shaking her head to clear the uncomfortable memories, Natsuki summoned her enthusiasm. _Yes! I get to fight today! _She ran to the door that would let her in to fight, impatiently tossing her katana from one hand to the other as her heart rate increased and her already acute senses seemed to heighten more at the thought of getting to hunt.

"Alright sweetie, I know you're probably not going to believe me here, but I'm _not a vampire._"

Natsuki almost missed the toss of her blade from her right to left hand upon hearing that comment. _Not a vampire? What is this one confused? I've never heard one try to talk me out of killing them this early in the game. Maybe she's heard of me?_

"Look sweetie you have to listen to me. I had to talk to you face to face for this, but they wouldn't let me come through the main door for that, so we're going to meet in here first. Just… well just give me a chance not to bite you first before you just come out swinging alright?"

This vamp's Japanese even sounded a little off. When the door opened, Natsuki charged out into the arena at full Slayer speed, only when she brought her sword down to strike the strange vampire it seemed to just glance off of some invisible wall. "…how?" _Magic? Since when do vamps use magic like that?_ She looked up into the vamp's dark hazel eyes that seemed to shift between green and gold in the room's harsh fluorescent lights. _She still has her human face on too, like she's either not taking me seriously or… _

Then she saw it. That emotion in the vampire's eyes. _She's looking at me like mom used to._ Suddenly her vision was all blurry, and she was angrily blinking moisture out of her eyes. "What are you doing to me?" The accusation was more a harsh growl than normal human speaking, as she used her voice so rarely.

The vampire knelt down to Natsuki's eye level, warm hazel eyes still gently holding bright green ones. "Sweetie, I'm not going to hurt you. Will you trust me for just a minute and let me borrow your hand? I want to show you something."

Absently Natsuki nodded, her will to fight for the moment banished by this creature's small show of kindness. The redhead slowly held out her hand, which Natsuki casually noted had very short unpainted nails unlike any other female vampire she had ever seen and her skin was tanned instead of the normal deathly pale. Hesitantly she clasped it with her own much smaller hand. _It's warm! _"Now I'm going to move your hand, try not to freak out right away alright?" Gently she raised both of their hands up, and slowly tilted her head back to expose her neck before placing Natsuki's small hand against her pulse point.

At first the significance of the gesture was lost on Natsuki, but then green eyes widened, "You have a heartbeat!"

Full lips formed a crooked smile as the kind woman lowered their hands, but still kept their gazes locked. "Like I said sweetie, I'm not a vampire and I don't want to hurt you. My name is Midori and I'm human, just like you. What's your name sweetie?"

Natsuki hesitated for a moment; anyone who worked here knew her name. Of course no one who worked here would be in the same room with her or touch her without fear like this either. _Maybe... maybe I could trust this person. I am so lonely. _"Natsuki."

The redhead's smile widened as warm eyes took in pale white skin, the long thick mane of dark, midnight blue highlighted silky hair and cold green eyes before replying, "A summer girl eh? Well Natsuki, how would you like to get out of here?"

Green eyes showed only confusion, "What do you mean?"

Midori reached up and brushed a lock of silky hair behind a small ear. "Well, I was wondering if you'd want to come live with me instead of living here."

_Her hands are rough and kindof clumsy, not soft and graceful like my mom's. _Natsuki searched those warm eyes for any hints of a trick or doubt. _They're just as gentle though, I miss my mom so much._ "Do you… know where my mom is?"

Natsuki watched with surprise as this strange woman's eyes filled with tears, "I'm sorry sweetie, but I don't know where she is. I wish I knew where to find her, I know she misses you so much."

The woman's tears stirred emotions in Natsuki that she had not felt since the time when she was friends with Nao. She hesitantly reached up and carefully wiped the tears from the older woman's eyes with her small, strong hands. "Hey, don't cry. I promise I'll go with you, you don't have to be scared, I will stay with you and make sure nothing hurts you." Her voice cracked as she spoke, having not been used so much in so long.

Midori chuckled softly, "Hey kiddo, that's my line." She then stood up to her full height, which seemed to Natsuki to be rather tall for a woman, certainly much taller than she remembered her mother being. Raising her voice and looking up at the ceiling Midori called out to the members of the Council team and senior Watcher who had been watching her progress with the little Slayer. "Yo Jeeves, let us outta this cage, me and my Samurai here've got places to be!" Natsuki looked up in surprise, as she did not understand the words that were coming out of her new guardian's mouth, though she vaguely remembered hearing words like those on television _before._

"I thought I told you not to call me that Sugiura!" She heard the old man from before responding back in the same strange words, and laughed thickly at the annoyance in his tone even if she couldn't understand him. She looked up to see Midori smiling warmly down at her and felt her cheeks blushing. _I haven't done that since before I got here either. Darn, I didn't miss that._

"Alright you, first things first though. Before we leave I'm taking you with me to the employee locker room and we're getting you cleaned up and into some new clothes that I brought. Those have seen better days, and I don't even want to know how old those bloodstains on you are." Midori's nose wrinkled slightly as though she had just now noticed her Slayer's less than pleasant scent.

Natsuki just laughed, "Do I get to bring my weapons?"

Midori pretended to think about it for a moment, "Well little Samurai you can bring your sword there, but the knives and stakes and stuff we can get replacements for easily. Also the man whose family we'll be staying with after you have a few months to get used to living with me has a huge dojo with lots and lots of swords of many different sizes and other weapons too."

Natsuki grinned widely and Midori felt her heart seem to pause at how innocent the young girl looked just then. "I can't wait!"

"Alright then let's get a move on!" Midori laughed as she broke into a run down the hall, grinning at how her Slayer effortlessly kept up. _You'll be safe with me Natsuki; I promise I will do everything that I can for you._

Kyoto, Japan; New Years 1993

Midori allowed herself a relaxed happy smile as she and Natsuki stood in line at the crowded shrine to say their New Years' prayers. It had been forever since Midori had done something like this and it was nice to do something traditional that really made her feel like she was back home in Japan. Natsuki had been reluctant at first to attend the shrine, stating that it was boring until Midori had explained that she wanted to have some nice holiday family-type memories with Natsuki even if they weren't really related. Natsuki had almost immediately agreed to go, stating in her rough way that she would go if it would make Midori feel better not admitting to any warm fuzzy feelings of her own on the matter.

It was full dark outside just after midnight but the shrine was pretty crowded, and Midori carefully looked over at Natsuki trying not to look like she was worried. It had only been a short while since Natsuki had been essentially in isolation and Midori worried that the little Slayer might have difficulty with so many people. Instead of seeming uncomfortable though Natsuki seemed relatively calm, even if bright green eyes constantly searched the crowd in a decidedly predatory manner.

The pair did seem a bit out of place in the crowd of traditionally dressed mostly older Japanese couples, though some had children with them. Neither Midori nor Natsuki even owned a kimono though, and as Midori hated to go through the trouble of wearing one she knew that trying to get her little Slayer into a kimono would have been a horrible ordeal for both of them. Instead they endured the vaguely disapproving looks of some of the less discrete older people in the crowd cast at their rather worn looking Western clothing, complete with heavy wool jackets and clunky boots. There was no snow tonight but it was still rather cold, and Midori figured that some of the glarers were probably just jealous of her and Natsuki's nice warm looking gloves and scarves.

"So Natsuki, how do you like where we're staying for the next little while?" Midori asked, hoping to pass some time.

Natsuki grunted vaguely in comment, shrugging her shoulders before reluctantly adding, "It seems nice."

Midori smiled sadly at how reticent her Slayer still was and idly wondered if she had always been like that or if it was a side effect of her time in the First District. "Well we should not be staying here too long; I just wanted to make sure we got at least the basics of your training down before we moved in with Fujino-san's family. I know these last few weeks have been less than exciting, but I am hoping that now that we're all set up in Fujino-san's house here in Kyoto we will be able to get started."

"It's alright Midori." Natsuki looked up at her with shy green eyes, "I like living with you, even if I don't get to fight quite so much."

Midori smiled down at her charge, she had explained a bit to Natsuki about how she was a Slayer and Midori was her Watcher. The little girl had nodded that she understood, but Midori still wasn't quite sure that she did. After they had gone to get the adoption papers signed officially Natsuki had shyly asked if that made Midori her mother now.

_"Do you want me to be your mother now?" The redhead had asked, carefully keeping her face and voice neutral as to not pressure her Slayer._

_"I don't want to hurt your feelings…" Natsuki had trailed off, as always unable to talk much about her mother. Midori suspected it was even harder for her than most children as she was unusually reluctant to show her emotions to others._

_"It's alright sweetie, you don't have to explain. How about you just call me Midori? My friends call me that." Midori had playfully held out her hand in a businesslike manner to seal the deal._

_Natsuki had given a small smile as she took Midori's hand in an almost painful handshake, "Alright Midori."_

Midori was about to respond when she noticed happily that they had reached the front of the line. Grinning in what she knew to be a slightly inappropriate fashion at the rather tired looking miko, she and Natsuki somewhat awkwardly approached the shrine. Both of them pulled the large, heavy ropes to ring the bell and clapped their hands together in the traditional manner but then their eyes met and both of them giggled nervously before moving off. "Did you want to buy any good luck charms?" Midori asked cheerfully, enjoying the feeling of nostalgia that being at a shrine on New Year's brought her.

Natsuki just shrugged as usual. "If you want."

Midori smiled at her Slayer taking her hand and pulling her to one of the stalls selling charms, buying ones for good health for both herself and Natsuki, and also one for academic success for Natsuki. When Natsuki had grumpily questioned that one, Midori had only grinned mischievously at her and told her to hurry up so they could tie their charms on one of the trees so they could head out to find some ramen like she had promised.

Together they looked for space to tie their charms on trees whose lower branches were already rather full. Midori quickly noticed that her height allowed her to tie hers on one of the more empty upper branches, but when she looked down to offer to help Natsuki tie hers she noticed that her little Slayer was suddenly nowhere to be seen. "Natsuki!" She yelled into the night, her eyes frantically searching for the little girl in the crowded shrine. She heard some startled cries a short distance away, and when she looked in that direction to see what seemed to be a fight through the crowd she knew with some amount of panic exactly where her Slayer had disappeared to.

Quickly shoving her way towards the disruption, Midori was able to see flashes of her little Slayer fighting with what seemed to be a couple of male vampires all dressed up in traditional kimono, apparently also attending the New Year's festivities. Vampires were relatively rare in Japan compared to some places with cremation being the preferred method of dealing with the dead, but still sometimes bodies were allowed to either remain in the morgue too long or if the mourning period for the wake and such took too long they could have long enough to rise. If the Sire really valued that their fledgling rise they would take the body to their hideout for the incubation period. In some ways this actually made slaying more difficult than it was for Slayers in Western countries because there was no one real obvious place like the cemetery to go to find all the newly risen vamps.

Even before Midori reached the circle of surprised and frightened humans Natsuki had managed to dust the first vampire with a branch still covered in tied paper fortunes. Midori now grinned ruefully as the tiny Slayer expertly engaged the other vampire in combat, _they're going to ask that we don't return here next year. _Inwardly cheering her Slayer on, Midori watched as the girl expertly kicked the kimono-clad vamp's feet out from under him, sending his muscular frame crashing to the ground. A small giggle escaped from the young Watcher at the startled look in the vampire's golden eyes as he realized that the tiny warrior was standing on his chest with her improvised spear through his heart. And then he was dust.

Natsuki's eyes immediately found Midori at the edge of the crowd as Midori approached her shaking her head ruefully at the huge grin on her Slayer's face, "Hey sweetie, I was wondering where you'd run off to!"

Natsuki looked around, seemingly just now noticing that almost all of the people near them were staring at her. Shyly trying to hide from all of the shocked looking eyes behind her Watcher she explained, her gruff voice defensive, "They were going to eat someone."

"It's alright sweetie, you did what you had to do, I appreciate you making sure everyone here will be safe." Midori grinned at her Slayer, unable to bring herself to scold the girl for slaying out in the open as she had, still she tried. "Next time try not to have so many witnesses, most people don't know about vampires."

Natsuki nodded her understanding, "Hey there's room on that branch there." She pointed up to a fairly high one after having shoved the branch she was still carrying into the ground. "I hope they aren't too upset about that."

"No worries Natsuki, I'm sure they'd rather a slightly broken tree than to have some of their worshipers be eaten on New Years. Usually the public is reluctant to notice that sort of thing, but on a big holiday like this it might be bad press." She looked at the height of the branch, "You want me to lift you up so you can reach?"

At the little Slayer's nod Midori crouched down and picked her up, surprised at just how light Natsuki was even though she knew Slayer strength was mostly mystical energy. She grinned at the little girl who was awkwardly gripping the lapels of her heavy coat as though the Slayer could lose her balance. "Alright kiddo, now tie those and then we can go get that beef ramen you wanted earlier."

Later they were both at the one roadside ramen stand that was open in the fairly out of the way neighbourhood where the Fujino home in Kyoto was located. Natsuki was on her fourth bowl, having shocked the little old man who owned the stand with her Slayer appetite. Midori had stopped after only one bowl, and was now slowly sipping her warm sake as she fondly watched the dark haired girl. "You want to head home after this cutie, the sun is about to come up." Natsuki just nodded, still not quite willing to slow down with the eating. Midori nodded to the sleepy little old man, "We'll head out after this. Your food is great by the way!"

"Thank you young ladies," He grinned toothlessly, "always happy to serve such lovely ladies." Midori just rolled her eyes a bit as Natsuki laughed at her, sure she sometimes went for older men, but not men easily old enough to be her grandfather. Well not if they weren't cool adventurers or something anyway. She had standards.

After Natsuki had finished her food they both waved goodbye to the old man. "Alright kiddo, let's get going. I was hoping we could start some of your training this evening after we get some sleep."

"What kind of training? You saw how good I was with those vamps tonight!" Natsuki's tone was defensive as though she was worried Midori thought she wasn't any good just because she'd never had a Watcher.

Midori just nodded, "Your fighting technique is quite good for now, though eventually we will want to work on improving it. After all, there is always room for improvement right?" At Natsuki's reluctant grunt of agreement she continued, "But you're right, your fighting technique isn't what I'm worried about. At the moment I wanted to try and work on your control of your strength."

"Control my strength?" Natsuki asked with some confusion.

"Yes, until recently you have not had to worry too much about accidentally using too much of your strength for something right? Well since we are going to be living with the Fujinos and their daughter who is just a bit older than you and hopefully having you go back to school next year with other children your age, we have to make sure you know how to limit your strength when interacting with humans so that you don't accidentally hurt anyone or do something that will get you unnecessary attention."

"I get the part about not hurting anyone, but what do you mean with unnecessary attention?" Natsuki spoke the words slowly, but Midori noticed with correct pronunciation.

Midori smiled at how smart her little Slayer was as she responded, "Well Natsuki, in general it isn't a good idea for everyone to know that you are a Slayer, so you don't want the whole world noticing that you are stronger than a normal human if you can help it."

Natsuki was still confused, "But why wouldn't I want everyone to know that I'm strong?"

"Because that would make you a target, and if you are a target then so are the people around you that you care about." She nodded at the sudden worry in Natsuki's eyes. "So that's why it is important that we work on your control here, so you aren't accidentally breaking doors down or lifting things you shouldn't really be able to that sort of thing. And of course making sure that you won't accidentally hurt other children."

"I don't want anything to happen to you." Natsuki said firmly before continuing in a softer, more hesitant tone, "Also, I would like to be able to make some more friends too… I like you Midori, I don't want to hurt your feelings… but it would be nice to have a friend or two my age."

"Thanks Natsuki, I like you too. And I don't mind, I want you to be able to make some friends." Midori grinned noticing the rapidly brightening grey of the sky, "Now let's hurry up and get home and get some sleep, the sun is already coming up!"

"Alright." Natsuki hesitated, seeming to struggle to get the next words out, "Thanks for taking me with you to the shrine and stuff tonight, it was nice."

"Anytime sweetie." Midori again took her Slayer's hand in hers as they walked down the quiet streets towards their nice house. _I hope this year is so much better for you than the last ones have been Natsuki._


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Suing me would be like trying to get milk from a chicken.

Tokyo, Japan; Early March, 1993

Midori shifted uncomfortably on the large leather backseat of the rather expensive looking vehicle that Hirotaka Fujino had sent to pick them up at the train station. The man had actually offered to send a driver all the way to his house outside Kyoto to pick them up there, but Midori had insisted that she and Natsuki would be fine taking the bullet train. Like normal middle class people, instead of being chauffeured across Japan like filthy rich princesses. She could tell from the awkward looks her Slayer kept sending her way that Natsuki was equally uncomfortable with the special treatment they were getting.

The past months with her Slayer had certainly been interesting. It wasn't that Natsuki didn't try to be a good girl; it was just that a Slayer was just rather… well different from any other girl that age. Luckily she wasn't enrolled at school yet or Midori would have certainly had a huge bill for things that needed replacing and Natsuki would likely have an expulsion on her permanent record. As it was Fujino-san had said not to worry about any damages to his Kyoto residence, but Midori lived in fear that he would change his mind after he realized just how many pieces of furniture, doors, and other things in his house had been accidentally damaged in some way by the young Slayer. In her Slayer's defense until very recently she had lived in a small room with concrete walls and hard metal alloy furniture. Not that a determined Slayer couldn't do some damage to those things, but she would at least have to try.

Midori had also soon realized that her original plan to have Natsuki only work on her control exercises and not go slaying, was just not realistic. Natsuki had managed to be okay with Midori's original set schedule for a week before Midori took pity on the poor girl when she realized the little Slayer was almost constantly shaking with pent up energy. For the next week she had attempted to use up the Slayer's extra energy with sparring and long distance running. Or rather, Natsuki ran and Midori rode beside her on a bicycle once she realized that even with her long legs she couldn't keep up. After a week of this though, both of them realized that they would have to find her at least _something_ to slay.

That had lead to them driving around town after dark, with Midori quite worried about being arrested on some child endangerment charges. They tried to stay to the good parts of the city where anyone being attacked was most likely being attacked by a vampire and not some human thugs, but a couple of times they had judged the situation wrong and Midori had to hope that the thugs that got beaten up by a little girl weren't going to tell anyone about what happened to them. Overall Midori had found herself completely exhausted after a long day of trying to wear out her Slayer, and she only hoped that sending the girl back to school regularly next year would help in that department. If not it would at least be a time during the day when the young Watcher could get some sleep.

During the Slayer training sessions Midori had also started having Natsuki brush up on some things she should have been learning in school as well as teaching her English. Natsuki had been somewhat unenthusiastic about learning more Japanese writing but had been excited to learn to speak English like Midori did. For her part the Watcher was almost embarrassed by how much her Slayer seemed to look up to her, having never had a little sister or cousin to compare the experience to.

One weekend they had also gone shopping for more clothes for the both of them much to Natsuki's displeasure. Midori had since been informed that clothes shopping was boring and had offered to buy Natsuki's clothing for her instead but the girl had been even more displeased with that option much to her Watcher's amusement. Most of the clothing Natsuki preferred seemed to be casual pants and t-shirts, her favourite colours being dark blue and black and anything with a wolf or a dog on it was also likely to be a candidate. After they had finished getting all of the clothing they needed Midori had taken her to a toy store as a reward where Natsuki had fallen in love with a large stuffed wolf. Midori had bought it for her without protest despite the cost, knowing that this was the first toy Natsuki had owned in a while that couldn't also be used to kill something.

Midori grinned at the stuffed wolf currently in the Slayer's small arms that Natsuki had inexplicably named Duran. Ever since she had gotten the wolf as long as she wasn't training she seemed to have Duran with her. Sometimes even when they were sparring indoors Natsuki would bring the wolf down to the sparring room and leave him sitting somewhere that he could watch over the lesson.

They had been riding for another twenty minutes or so before Natsuki grumpily questioned her in English, "Are we there yet?"

Midori let out a startled laugh at her Slayer's question only to hastily defend herself when she received a cold green glare, "I'm sorry sweetie, it's just that you sounded like some kid on a road trip in one of those American movies. Well except that you've got my accent anyway. Lemme ask." Switching to Japanese to make Natsuki feel smart even though she was fairly sure the driver spoke English as well, she asked how much longer they would be in the car.

"Fifteen minutes Sugiura-sama." He replied formally, causing Midori to involuntarily roll her eyes. Natsuki let out an uncharacteristic giggle at her Watcher's behaviour.

Turning back to Natsuki she continued in Japanese, "Well little samurai are you ready to meet Fujino-sama's little princess?"

Natsuki looked rather nervous at Midori's joking question, and asked again even though Midori had tried to answer already, "Is she really a princess?"

"No sweetie, she's just almost as rich as one."

"I've just never met a rich person before." Natsuki tried to explain her nervousness at the situation, absently stroking Duran's fur.

Midori tried to think of the best way to calm her Slayer's nerves at this unfamiliar situation, "Well sweetie, here's my advice. I'll warn you now that it's not the advice that most people would give you, but I think it's the only policy that works. You just treat rich people like anyone else. Some people might say that is dangerous because a rich person can be dangerous if you make them angry, but you don't want to lose your dignity just because someone has more money than you. All you need to do is just be as polite to them as they are to you alright?"

Natsuki nodded though she still felt like she didn't quite understand. "I'll try."

"That should be plenty good enough for now." Midori grinned at her Slayer conspiratorially, and leaned over to whisper in her ear, "And besides, the little princess hasn't ever met a Slayer either."

Natsuki gave her Watcher a shocked look and whispered back, "She knows I'm a Slayer?"

Midori sat back in her seat shaking her head, "No but that doesn't really matter, if she spends enough time with you she'll have to see that you're special." She smiled at the blush that covered Natsuki's cheeks; the girl was so painfully shy about compliments. Looking back out the front windshield Midori noticed that they had come to a large iron gate through which she could just make out a ridiculously large Western-style mansion. "Aaand it looks like we've just arrived at the castle."

When the large black car finally came to a stop in front of wide steps that led up to massive double doors, Natsuki and Midori exchanged nervous glances before slowly getting out of the vehicle. Almost before Midori could get any of the kinks out of long legs that had been uncomfortably cramped even in the rather spacious backseat, Natsuki was around the car standing protectively just a bit in front of her Watcher despite her own nervousness at the unfamiliar situation. _I wonder if all Slayers do that?_

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Natsuki was uncharacteristically still as she stood with her Watcher waiting to meet the Fujinos for the first time. When she realized how tightly she was holding Duran to her chest she growled softly at her display of weakness and instead held him to her side with her left arm. Why had she kept Duran out of her pack anyway? She didn't bring him out with her to slay vampires. Of course this situation was much more intimidating.

When those large wooden doors opened to reveal the three Fujinos, Natsuki felt her Watcher rest a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I know you can do this Natsuki, you're the bravest person I know." At those softly spoken words Natsuki squared her shoulders and tried to focus on breathing slowly as she studied the too quickly approaching, impossibly well dressed humans.

Hirotaka was handsome man, a just bit taller than her Watcher with broad shoulders, short black hair and chiseled features. He looked like a friendly man who smiled often, the kind of man Natsuki had always imagined having as a father, and she felt a put at ease by his comforting presence. Sakuya seemed to be the epitome of the ideal elegant and graceful Japanese lady. Her long, perfect dark brown hair tumbled carelessly over slim, pale shoulders and with every step her slight form seemed to be gliding towards them rather than merely walking. Both adults were dressed in expensive, perfectly tailored western clothing.

Any child would likely be at least a little bit intimidated by the presence of the two adults, but it was the smaller figure trailing a bit behind them that almost made Natsuki disregard her Watcher's words about bravery and flee for the hills to live with the vampires. Only several inches taller than Natsuki's own four feet, Shizuru was one of the most frightening things that the young Slayer had ever faced. Her soft looking light brown hair fell just past her shoulders, bangs falling a bit into her eyes. Like her mother she was pale and elegant looking, not at all awkward in her movements like most children her age were. She did seem strangely reluctant to look at Natsuki, which made the Slayer wonder if this uncommonly beautiful girl wasn't a bit nervous about this meeting herself.

All too soon they were standing much too close, Shizuru just a bit behind her mother, her gaze shyly focused on her expensive white dress shoes. Hirotaka stepped forward confidently holding his hand out to Midori and surprising Natsuki by greeting her in heavily accented but still understandable English, "Midori how have you been! You've grown to be nearly as tall as your father, your eyes look so much like his. I still miss him; he was a good man and a good friend."

"Thank you Fujino-san, I miss him every day." Hazel eyes shimmered slightly with the old pain as she shook his hand. Switching to Japanese she addressed all of them, "Natsuki and I thank you again for offering us a position in your household, it is most generous of you."

Sakuya simply nodded serenely her expression unreadable, while Shizuru kept her eyes facing downward. Hirotaka turned his friendly brown eyes to Natsuki and gave her a charming smile, "And is this the little one you told me so much about Midori?"

"I am Kuga Natsuki. Please be kind to me." She greeted him formally giving a slight, awkward bow.

"Fujino Hirotaka, nice to meet you." He inclined his head slightly at her, eyes twinkling. "And this is my wife Sakuya and my dear daughter Shizuru." Turning his eyes to his still shy daughter he spoke to her softly, "Go ahead sweetie say hi."

Shizuru finally raised her gaze to Natsuki before speaking in a quietly, "Fujino Shizuru, please be kind to me." She didn't step forward or bow, still standing shyly a bit behind her mother. Natsuki nodded to her, trying to be as unintimidating as possible as she studied the girl who she hoped would become her friend. Shizuru was classically beautiful like her mother, full lips, high cheekbones and a straight nose though her features still had a childish softness to them. _She has such beautiful eyes._ Natsuki tried for several long moments to figure out how they could be that colour, rust coloured perhaps reddish brown.

Realizing she was staring Natsuki hastily replied, internally wincing as her voice came out sounding even rougher than usual, "Hey Shizuru." Silently kicking herself for being so direct with the obviously painfully shy girl Natsuki continued clumsily, "Um... really thanks again for letting me and my Watc...I mean me and Midori to stay with you guys. It's real nice of you..." Natsuki trailed off awkwardly frustrated with herself that she didn't know what kinds of things normal girls liked to talk about. _It's not like I could ask her what her favourite kind of battleaxe for beheading slime demons is or anything._ _Oh hey, at least she's looking at me again, that's got to be a good sign right?_

Natsuki was momentarily comforted to notice that Shizuru had stopped staring at her shoes and had again raised those intriguing rust coloured eyes to hers. At least until she saw what could only be described as a smirk on the older girl's face, and a look in her eyes that Natsuki thought seemed almost predatory. "It is no problem, I was happy when my father told me that Natsuki would be staying with us."

"Uh... Thanks." Natsuki again wracked her brain trying to find something, anything at all to add to their little conversation. Then a familiar rough hand on her shoulder saved her for the moment. Offering a shaky smile to Shizuru she glanced questioningly up at her Watcher.

"Fujino-san said that he would be putting us up in the small separate servant's quarters on the property and moving the other live-in servants to an unused wing of the main house. That way we'll have plenty of space to ourselves." Noticing Natsuki's confused look Midori continued in a softer tone that only her Slayer would hear, "Don't question it, just smile and nod and hopefully it will all work out. Trying to actually understand rich people logic only leads to headache."

Hirotaka cleared his throat, drawing sharp green eyes to himself. Filled with momentary uneasiness at the intense feeling of being sized up his voice came out sounding uncharacteristically hesitant, "I'll take you over to the house myself. You don't have to worry about getting your bags, I can have one of the servants take them over later."

Natsuki looked back to her Watcher, "I don't think I should let anyone else carry the... training supplies."

Midori hoped that the girl's reference to their collection of weaponry was a bit more discrete than it seemed to her. "Uh, sure Natsuki, but if you carry that who will carry Duran?"

Without comment Natsuki gently put her precious stuffed wolf into her Watcher's hands. "I trust you to look out for him for me." Then before Midori could comment the little Slayer had approached the confused driver to ask him about opening the trunk for her. For her part the young Watcher was feeling suddenly unexpectedly emotional, all over a stuffed animal. _Who knew that being assigned a Slayer was what it took to cause me to turn into a big softie._ Laughing a bit at the surprised looks on the faces around her as her Slayer effortlessly hefted the heavy looking duffle-bag of weapons onto a small shoulder, Midori turned back to Hirotaka.

"Alright buddy, show us to this nice place you have set up for me and my girl."

"Uh... right. Well um, it would probably be faster if we cut through the main house as it's in the back behind the large garden."

Repressing her urge to comment on the phrases main house and large garden Midori just gave a slightly quirky smile and nodded, "Lead the way sir."

As the small group climbed the stairs to the large double doors of the main house they were suddenly opened for them before Hirotaka could reach them by a servant who appeared to have been simply standing at the doors waiting for someone to need them opened. Inside the Western style of the mansion continued, the entryway had high two-story tall ceilings, expensive looking granite tiled floors, and a stairway that lead up to the second level up which Sakuya lead Shizuru claiming that the older girl had to get ready for her piano lesson before dinner. "Have fun sweetie!" Hirotaka called to his daughter as the three continued through the entrance hall and down a side corridor. "We're going to go out through the doors in the main kitchen, since that opens directly onto the shortest path between this house and where I'm setting you two up."

Midori grinned, "No problem Fujino-san, my Natsuki will be happy to learn where the kitchen is won't ya?" The Watcher winked at her Slayer who blushed slightly at being teased about her more than healthy appetite.

Hirotaka grinned, "No need to be embarrassed Natsuki-chan you're still a growing girl after all. My family will make sure you get plenty to eat here so that you can grow up healthy."

Natsuki nodded shyly to the kind man, "Thank you Fujino-sama." She shyly looked away from him to instead study her surroundings which were no less intimidating than Fujino himself. Their footsteps were muffled by the plush, maroon coloured carpeting along this back hallway, and Natsuki found herself wondering idly what kinds of rooms were behind the closed doors they passed along the way. She also noticed with some surprise that even though this hallway was probably mainly used by servants and members of the family only, its walls were still decorated with various landscape paintings only a few of which Natsuki recognized as being of places around Japan.

Soon they reached another set of double doors, ones that would simply swing open for someone pushing a cart instead of doors that actually latched. _I can't believe that this is a house for just three people._ Upon seeing the large, almost industrial sized kitchen Natsuki was again amazed even as her mouth watered slightly at the delicious smells of roasting meats and fresh made bread.

"I'd like to introduce you ladies to our head chef Jun Kiyama." Hirotaka called out cheerfully, causing a tall slender man with longish blonde highlighted but graying dark hair to look up from where he was chopping some vegetables at one of the many spacious stainless steel counter spaces.

"Oh! What have we here?" The chef asked in a soothing tenor voice that instantly put Natsuki at ease. "Are these the pretty ladies that will be staying with us now?"

"Indeed they are Jun. This is Sugiura Midori, her father Peter Grey was a colleague and friend of mine years ago when I was still young."

"Nonsense Fujino-sama, you are still quite young and handsome." Jun grinned winningly as he offered the young Watcher a rather dainty handshake, "It is lovely to meet you Midori-chan."

"You as well Jun-san, it looks like we will be in good hands with your cooking."

"Thank you dear, that is most kind of you." Shifting his warm brown eyes to study Natsuki he asked, "And who is this strapping young samurai?"

Hirotaka and Midori both laughed at the chef's description of the Slayer as she blushed. Hirotaka pulled himself together to offer the introduction, "This is Kuga Natsuki, Midori's adopted daughter."

"Wonderful to meet you Natsuki-kun." Glancing at his offered hand Natsuki was momentarily worried that she had been wrong and that this nice man was actually a vampire... until she realized that no vampire would be caught undead with nail polish that shade of pink. Especially not with sparkles.

Belatedly and awkwardly taking his amazingly soft hand in her own Natsuki replied shyly, "Please be kind to me."

Shaking his palm out after Natsuki released it Jun commented with a chuckle, "That's some grip you've got there Natsuki-hime."

Natsuki winced, embarrassed that her nerves caused her to lose some of her control, "Sorry sir, are you alright?"

Jun gave her a gentle smile, his eyes sparkling cheerily, "Not to worry honey, I've met plenty of crabs with some tough grips as well and I survived while they ended up dinner. Also if either of you are ever hungry between meals don't hesitate to come to me alright? I won't have any of Fujino-sama's guests going hungry on my watch."

Hirotaka laughed at his employee, "Thanks Jun, I'm gonna go show these two ladies their house now, see you in a few hours."

"Of course Fujino-sama. Good day ladies!"

Midori and Natsuki both murmured their replies as Hirotaka lead them through the rest of the large kitchen and to another set of heavy wooden double doors and back outside. After a short walk along a well-kept stone path they rounded a bend to see a small, one story more traditionally Japanese style house nestled up against the thick tree-line. "And here we are!"

"It looks perfect Fujino-san, thank you." Midori said with enthusiasm.

"Just wait until I show you what I did to the inside here." He said cheerfully, pushing open a side door to reveal a large traditional dojo.

"Good Lord Hiro, it's incredible!" Midori exclaimed, momentarily forgetting her manners in her enthusiasm.

For her part Natsuki just stood in the doorway looking around the room with wide eyes, unable to believe that she was going to be living here. "Was this already part of the house Hiro or did you put it in when you knew we'd be coming to live here?" The young Watcher questioned her old family friend.

Hirotaka chuckled amiably, "You caught me! I had a few rooms taken out for this training area when I knew you two would be moving here. Shizuru-chan and her naginatajutsu Master have done a couple training sessions here, but otherwise it's completely new." He smiled, noticing that the two women had almost tuned him out as they looked the place over in awe, "Anyway I'll leave you two to get situated here. If you wanted we're having a family dinner at seven, you two are more than welcome to join us."

"Sure Fujino-san, Natsuki and I would love to have dinner with your family. It will be nice to get to know your wife and Shizuru-chan a little better since we're going to be staying here."

"Sure thing Midori, I'll let Jun and Sakuya know that they should expect you."

With that he wandered back out towards the main house to do whatever insanely rich men do while waiting for dinnertime to roll around. Midori and her Slayer took the time to look around their new place. Their first find was a storage room off of the dojo that already had an impressive collection of weapons even before they put away the weapons they had brought with them. "Wow check this out, it's a samurai weapon!" Natsuki exclaimed, hefting what seemed to be a well cared for naginata from a stand in the corner that also contained a set of armor used in naginatajutsu competitions. The Slayer let out a giggle, "It's longer than I am tall."

Midori laughed at her Slayer's antics, "Sure enough short stuff, I guess that means you're too little to use one of those." She reached out a hand to ruffle silky dark hair, "Come on kiddo! Put that back so we can go check out the rest of this place."

Besides the large dojo there were only a few other rooms in the small house. A small traditional bedroom for each of them with futons neatly folded away and small toilet room shared between the two. Across the small hallway there was a nice sized bath and a small kitchen and sitting room separated by a bar style counter that served as an eating surface. In the sitting area there was a comfortable looking sofa, some overstuffed leather chairs and to Midori's delight a nice sized television complete with VCR and Nintendo Entertainment System.

Midori let out a rather loud squeal of delight upon seeing the videogame system causing her Slayer to stare at her in surprise. "Hey Natsuki, you wanna play Mario with me until dinner? I call Luigi!"

"…Uh sure."

To Natsuki's slight frustration Slayer senses did not translate into innate skill with videogames, she thought it might be because the real world had three dimensions instead of only two. Still though, before it was time for dinner Mario was contributing more to their game than simply running forward a few panels and promptly running into the first gooma or turtle that waddled along. "Muahaha!" Natsuki laughed evilly as her firepowered up Mario finally completed the first level successfully, though the portly mustachioed plumber only managed to grab the bottom of the level-clear flagpole.

Midori laughed, "I see I still have many things left to teach you Slayer of mine." Midori laughed as the dark haired girl rudely stuck her tongue out. "Alright, let's go see if they brought our clothes in so we can get changed before dinner. You don't have to get dressed up or anything I don't think, just something clean."

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Midori grinned at the small crouched figure of her Slayer staring intently into the koi pond that was located just out the front door of their small house. "I hope we don't have an outbreak of zombie fish." Midori called out in greeting, walking slowly to the side of the pond as she finished tying her hair back in her customary ponytail. Looking into the gently moving water she let out a low whistle, "Not zombies maybe but those things are some monsters for sure! Check out how fat that black and orange one is over there."

Natsuki laughed at her Watcher's antics, quickly standing up. "Just don't fall in and I think we're safe from them, at least until one of them grows legs. Then we should make sure the fridge is secured."

Midori reached out to ruffle her Slayer's silky hair her hazel eyes twinkling, "Alright kiddo, you ready to go have dinner at court with the princess and her family?" At Natsuki's nervous nod the redhead continued, "Hey don't worry about it too much alright? Just be yourself, they've got to get to know us sooner or later. I promise it'll be fine."

"If you say so."

"I do, and as you know I'm never wrong!" Midori grinned at her Slayer's laugh. "Let's go find Jun-chan and see if he can't help us locate the dining room." Natsuki giggled again at her Watcher's girlish nickname for the eccentric chef as they headed back down the stone path toward the doors that lead to the kitchen. "I'm going to need to ask Fujino-san for a map to this place." Midori commented absently in English as she held one of the heavy doors open for her Slayer. "It would be frightfully easy to get lost in this bloody palace."

As Watcher and Slayer stepped into the kitchen they found it far busier than before. "Oi, Jun-chan!" The redhead called out loudly, causing Natsuki to blush a bit at her Watcher's rude behaviour.

Luckily the chef seemed more amused than insulted at the name Midori had settled on for him, "Hey Midori-chan! What can I do for you ladies this evening?"

"Well, Fujino-san invited Natsuki and me to have dinner with the family and I was hoping you could help us find them without getting lost in this place."

Jun gave a light laugh before leading them to the inner hallway and gesturing to the left with one manicured hand. "It's just down this way, the third set of doors on the right."

"Thank you good sir." She said, bowing playfully.

"No problem Midori-chan, you come find me if you need anything else alright?"

"Count on it." She joked back as she motioned for Natsuki to follow her down the hall. As they approached the dining room Natsuki thought at first that they must have arrived before the Fujinos as she could not hear any sounds from within. However when Midori opened one of the doors for them she was startled to see that all three Fujinos were already seated at the large dark wood table. Hirotaka was seated at the head of the table at the end farthest from the door with Sakuya to his right and Shizuru to her mother's right. Natsuki also absently noticed the black baby grand piano in the corner, though it was currently silent its keys covered.

"Aah glad you two could join us." Hirotaka called out in a friendly tone, "Don't worry that you were late, we only just sat down ourselves and Jun informed me that dinner won't be ready for a couple more minutes anyway. I did however locate a bottle of that scotch your father was so fond of Midori if you'd like to share a few glasses with me."

Midori laughed heartily as she sat down next to Hirotaka, "You know I don't turn down alcohol buddy." Natsuki winced at the quickly concealed look of shock that crossed Sakuya-san's face at her Watcher's forward manner as she sat down awkwardly in the tall backed chair across from Shizuru.

Natsuki glanced across the table at the older girl as she nervously adjusted the napkin in her lap, "Um... so how'd your piano lesson go?"

Shizuru smiled elegantly at her, those rust coloured eyes showing no hints of the shyness from earlier, "It went quite well thank you for asking Natsuki."

Natsuki blushed a bit at the direct use of her name, though she normally preferred to be addressed that way there was just something about the way Shizuru said it that made her feel a little nervous. The Slayer tried to think of something else to say to the other girl but before she could Jun and another one of the cooks arrived with a large cart of food from the kitchen. Natsuki's stomach growled softly as the two men quietly put the abundance of food on the table. She was tempted to simply just grab something, but when she noticed no one else at the table was she tried to make her stomach be patient for just a bit longer. Staring greedily at the several different types of meat and fish as well as some extremely tasting looking onigiri Natsuki struggled not to openly drool.

Finally Hirotaka uttered the traditional phrase to start the meal and was echoed by the four women, most enthusiastically by Midori and Natsuki. As soon as they had been given the green light, Natsuki eagerly piled her plate high with beef, eel, and rice. And at her Watcher's pointed look, some vegetables. Soon the little Slayer was happily stuffing her face as she listened to her Watcher and Hirotaka animatedly talking about one of Midori's adventures hunting artefacts in North Africa along with a quieter conversation between Sakuya and her daughter about what might have been tea.

It wasn't until Natsuki was asking her Watcher to pass her some more onigiri that Sakuya finally decided to try and bring the Slayer into the dinner conversation. "I must say Natsuki-chan you have a most healthy appetite," Sakuya's spoke in soft elegant tones, her expression neutral such that Natsuki couldn't tell what she was really thinking, "I wish I could always count on Shi-chan eating so much, she tends to peck at her food more often than not."

It was at this point that Natsuki noticed the much more modest portion sizes that both Fujino women had on their plates. She noticed with some dismay that even Hirotaka and her Watcher while eating a bit more heartily weren't scarfing down quite so much. "Uh... well we were travelling all day and there wasn't time to get much for lunch Fujino-san." Natsuki glanced nervously at her Watcher, slowing the pace of her gorging though Midori only smiled indulgently at her Slayer.

"It's alright kiddo. I know we didn't get enough to eat today." Midori offered Sakuya her most charming grin, "She's a growing girl you understand."

"Yes quite." Sakuya replied with a small smile of her own, turning to her daughter, "We'll do our best to make sure Natsuki-chan doesn't miss any meals while she is staying with us right Shi-chan?"

Shizuru's lips curled in a perfect mirror of her mother's elegant smile, "Of course, I would not want Natsuki to go hungry."

The rest of dinner was rather uneventful, and after a small desert Midori begged off another drink and conversation with Hirotaka saying that she and Natsuki were rather tired from their travelling that day. Once they were back in their own house Midori explained to Natsuki that they would start back up on their training schedule the next day. "Also I wanted to get you started on a more formal curriculum to get you back up to speed with your school work. Your math is pretty good, but you are really behind on learning your kanji."

Natsuki groaned and complained, "Ugh, I hate learning kanji they're so hard."

Midori just ruffled her Slayer's hair, "Sorry sweetie, but you've got to learn them if you want to do well in school once you go back. Don't worry we won't be learning all of them, just enough to get you caught up."

Natsuki grimaced, "That's the trouble, there's way too many of them!"

Midori smiled sympathetically, "I know what you mean, and I had a hard time even reading a newspaper when I came back here after having been abroad for so many years. It's not so bad though, I know you can learn them." She ruffled the dark silky hair one more time, "Alright kiddo, how about you go get a bath before bed. I'll see you in the morning." Walking into her room Midori decided to put some of her clothes away while she waited for Natsuki to finish in the bath so that she could also take a quick shower before bed. _I sure hope there is enough in Tokyo to keep a Slayer busy… I think I remember something about it from Watcher training…_


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

It had only been a few days since Natsuki and Midori had arrived at the Fujino residence, but Natsuki was already beginning to feel tentatively comfortable here. She had not seen much of the Fujinos since they had all eaten dinner together the first night, the nights since then Slayer and Watcher had eaten dinner just the two of them in their small house. She had only seen the other residents in passing from the garden when she happened to be out for a walk.

This late morning found her seated on a fairly comfortable bench in one of the gazebos, doing the boring task of practicing her calligraphy of the kanji Midori had assigned her for today. It was such a nice day today. It was mid-March, but even though it was still morning the temperature was already reached about twenty Celsius. There was only a slight breeze that brought the scent of the early spring flowers to the Slayer's senses, along with a hint of the bread that Jun was baking in the kitchen for lunch.

The young Slayer grumbled in frustration pulling at her long dark hair as she attempted to make a reasonable simile of the kanji meaning "outside" with the fountain pen Midori had loaned her as she softly recited the various readings. "Soto, hoka, hasureru, gai, ge..." She growled out loud as she noticed how lopsided her version of the kanji looked compared to the one in the workbook Midori had bought her. "Bloody hell!" She cursed in English, before switching back to mostly Japanese as she addressed her study companion for the day, "Duran this is crazy! Why do I have to learn to write this crap out longhand anyway, isn't that what computers are for? Sometimes I wish Midori had taken us with her back to England instead, it's not this bloody difficult to write a T."

"Mou, but then Natsuki wouldn't be living here with me." Natsuki jumped at Duran's unexpected reply and then blushed when she realized that it was Shizuru rather than her stuffed wolf who had spoken. The graceful tawny haired girl had somehow managed to make her way passed Natsuki's Slayer senses and was now sitting daintily on one of the railings of the gazebo with a rather undignified pout on her lips.

"Gah... I'm sorry Shizuru," Natsuki hastened to apologize, hoping to cheer up the other girl who was clearly hurt by the offhand comment. "I didn't really mean that I don't enjoy living with you, I was just venting because kanji are so stupid."

Immediately the pout was gone as though it had never been, replaced by that mysterious small smile. The older girl jumped down from the railing, her feet barely making a sound as she landed gracefully on the deck and approached the bench where Natsuki was working. "Some of them do have an awful lot of different readings to memorize. I usually try to think of a few words with each reading that are similar to the meaning to help me remember them." As Shizuru looked down at the workbook Natsuki blushed as she realized that Shizuru was clearly trying to hold in a laugh. "I must say that Natsuki has rather unique penmanship, I have never seen that kanji written with quite so much personality." She finally commented diplomatically.

Natsuki frowned a bit, "Yeah I know my handwriting is awful..." She hesitated a moment before deciding she wanted to at least be a little honest with her new friend, "I missed a couple of years of school so I'm really behind learning all of this stuff."

Shizuru smiled kindly at her, all traces of amusement gone from rust coloured eyes, "Natsuki need not feel ashamed. If Natsuki needs any tips for remembering the readings for some of them just ask me alright?" When Natsuki nodded at her offer, Shizuru changed the subject. "Who's this?" She questioned, gesturing to Duran, "I don't think that we were introduced properly the other day."

Natsuki blushed again, hoping that the older girl wouldn't think she was a baby for carrying a stuffed animal around with her everywhere. Picking up the bluish grey wolf she offered him to Shizuru who carefully took him into her arms gently stroking his soft fur. "His name is Duran. He helps me keep Midori safe." She blushed redder when she realized that she couldn't tell Shizuru about being the Slayer so such a statement might sound silly.

Shizuru looked up from Duran, rusty eyes studying Natsuki curiously before she laughed softly, "I'm sure that Midori-san feels very safe indeed with the two of you looking out for her."

"Uh... thanks. What are you doing out here Shizuru?"

"Mou, is Natsuki not happy to see me?" That pout was back again, "Regardless, I was out looking at the first irises. They are quite lovely this year and violet is my favourite colour."

"Sorry Shizuru, I didn't mean that I wasn't happy to see you here, I just hadn't really seen you around since that first day." Natsuki again found herself getting apologetic at the sight of that pout, even though she now suspected it might be faked.

"Then I am glad that my presence does not trouble Natsuki. What is Natsuki's favourite colour?" Shizuru asked innocently, sitting next to Natsuki on the bench.

"Blue." Natsuki blushed as Shizuru reached forward and gently brushed a thick lock of dark silky hair out of green eyes.

"Blue is a lovely colour too." Shizuru gazed intensely into Natsuki's eyes, causing the Slayer to shift nervously, "Natsuki has the most beautiful eyes." The tawny haired girl then grinned somewhat wickedly as Natsuki's cheek blushed hotly under her fingers.

"Uh... you too." Natsuki blushed more as she backed away from the strangely intimidating girl, "You have pretty eyes I mean."

"Natsuki says the nicest things." Rising elegantly to her feet Shizuru continued, "Anyway I can't stay, mother is taking me with her to have tea at Suzushiro-san's."

"Gee, that sounds like almost more fun than this kanji practice for morons I'm doing."

Shizuru giggled softly, "Mou Natsuki is such a meanie. Suzushiro-san is a nice lady and her daughter goes to school with me."

Natsuki nodded though her tone indicated some remaining scepticism at how fun going to tea could possibly be. "Alright, have fun then Shizuru. I'll see you later?"

"Of course!" Gently she returned Duran to his post of watching over Natsuki's kanji practice. Then with a small wave the older girl walked off towards the direction of her mother's tentative calls leaving a rather bemused Natsuki in her wake.

Sighing softly the once again bored Slayer turned the page and began working on the kanji for "half". Smiling as she realized this one contained mostly just straight lines she began again, softly reciting the readings to herself as she began making the required number of repetitions. "Nakaba, han..."

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

The next Saturday found Natsuki practicing multiplication tables. She vastly preferred math to Japanese, but now she was sitting in the dojo attempting to concentrate on what seven times six was when her Watcher was getting ready to give her first naginatajutsu lesson to Shizuru. Natsuki wasn't sure exactly what to expect as she watched Midori and Shizuru facing off.

Shizuru was clad in the traditional hakama, looking every bit the Japanese princess. Midori however looked almost scruffy in her faded blue jeans with the large hole in the right knee, her favourite boots, and a faded grey Oxford University t-shirt. Both of them had their hair pulled up, Shizuru's was in a flawless bun and Midori's was in her usual sloppy ponytail. Each had one of the long bamboo practice staves in their hands. Natsuki thought that Shizuru in particular looked magical in the afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows as she went through the warm-up kata. Looking at her Watcher made her want to giggle a bit, because instead of taking the warm-up seriously like Shizuru seemed to be, Midori was casually spinning the practice staff around in her hands experimentally tossing it up in the air and catching it a few times. _Sometimes I have to remind myself that she isn't a Slayer too._

After a few silent minutes Midori spoke up, her typically bold tones causing both Natsuki and Shizuru to jump slightly at the sudden disruption of the peace, "Alright Shizuru-chan let's go. First let's just run through the basic kata so I can see what you've got."

They ran through the basic kata once slowly, Midori only gently tapping her staff to Shizuru's as they went through the exercise. The second time they went through the kata at speed, the bamboo staves now making louder clicks as they touched. After the second time through Midori called a pause to their training, backing off to speak, "Alright Shizuru-chan here's the deal. Okazaki-sensei is a master at naginatajutsu, and I barely know more than you do about it but your dad thinks that I'll be helpful in getting you to learn to 'think outside the box' if you will with your training."

With a sudden display of casual strength that brought a shocked look to Shizuru's eyes Midori broke her practice staff cleanly in half over her knee. "I was on the fencing team at university as an epee dual wielder however." Midori grinned wickedly spinning a half bamboo staff in each hand, "So… we're going to try a little freestyle sparring this way and see if anything productive comes of it."

Again Midori started slowly, allowing Shizuru to get a feel for having two weapons coming at her instead of just one, two weapons that were wielded rather differently from her polearm. The half-length weapons were better suited to an over-handed swing forcing Shizuru to bring her weapon up to defend against blows from above more often. Natsuki watched impressed as Midori made sure not to use her full strength with the small girl even as they sped up their sparring, pulling any blows that got past her student's guard to a mere tap. _She sure doesn't spar that gently with me._

By the time the training session was finished, both Shizuru and Midori were breathing heavily, their hair soaked with sweat and coming free from ties. Midori was sporting a couple of new bruises on her arms where Shizuru hadn't pulled her blows when she got some touches in but both of them were grinning. "That was great Shizuru-chan, you really are rather talented. Your father must be really pleased with your skill."

Shizuru bowed gracefully in response, still breathing heavily, "Thank you Midori-sensei, it was an honor to spar with you as well."

Midori laughed loudly, "None of that sensei stuff, it makes me feel old. Just Midori."

Shizuru smiled, "As Midori-san wishes."

"Natsuki! What's eight times seven?" The redhead called out to her Slayer.

"Huh... uh... fifty-six." Natsuki replied, having been caught off guard.

"Good job kiddo you win the prize!" Midori shouted, laughing evilly before she chucked her practice sticks at speed towards her Slayer's head. Shizuru watched in horrified at her sensei's careless attitude toward her adopted daughter, but then blinked in amazement when Natsuki effortlessly caught both of them even though she had been looking at her math book when Midori had thrown them.

"Hah, nice try Midori." Natsuki mocked her Watcher, sticking her tongue out at her.

Midori laughed, "Yeah yeah, anyway kiddo I'm gonna go take a shower real quick to clean up, then I'll come back down and watch your crossbow practice alright?" Natsuki nodded, placing Midori's practice sticks on the floor next to her absently as she continued to work on memorizing her multiplication tables. Midori turned back to Shizuru, "Thanks again for the great sparring session, I can't believe your father is actually paying me for something so fun. Do me a favour though and don't tell him I said that."

Shizuru smiled, "Don't worry Midori-san; your secret is safe with me." The cheerful redhead gave her student a small wave before heading through the door to the main area of the house. Shizuru stood quietly watching Natsuki work for a moment, curious about the younger girl even though she was also eager to return to her house to take a much needed shower. "So, Natsuki practices crossbow?"

Natsuki looked up from her math and nodded, "Yeah, Midori trains me in all sorts of weapons." Thinking a moment she added, "Well weapons that aren't guns anyway."

Shizuru's rusty eyes looked thoughtful as they studied her new friend, "Why exactly is she so thorough about training you to use so many weapons anyway?"

Natsuki struggled for a minute, trying to remember the cover story. Coming up blank she improvised lamely, "Well Midori just wants to make sure that I can protect myself."

Shizuru nodded, though her tone as she replied was laced with a bit of sarcasm, "Indeed, well I am certain that most self-defence classes teach students to wield crossbows." Shrugging Shizuru continued, "Anyway that was quite the workout, so I'm heading back to take a shower and then get some reading done for when school starts back next week. Are you and Midori-san having dinner at our house tonight?"

Natsuki shrugged, "I don't know, I figured that was up to your parents. Why don't you ask your dad about it? Jun's food is awesome, and even if your mom is a little scary I don't mind eating with you guys."

Shizuru laughed, "You think my mother is scary do you?"

"She's just like you." Natsuki grinned wickedly, holding her hand out for Shizuru's practice staff, which Shizuru handed her.

Shizuru pouted, "Natsuki is such a meanie. But since I'm so kind, I will ask my father about you and Midori-san eating dinner with us anyway. Have fun with your 'self defence' lesson Na-tsu-ki." And then with a little wave she turned on her heel and walked gracefully out of the dojo.

Natsuki shook her head as she took the practice staves back to the storage room. Then gathering up her study materials she decided that it would be a good idea to play some more Mario until it was time for crossbow practice. Dropping her book off in her room Natsuki headed for the television. _I'm sure Midori won't mind me slacking off just a little._


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

Natsuki hummed softly to herself as she casually jumped up onto the kitchen counter so that she could reach the shelf with the cereal bowls. Even though it was seven at night she had a craving for something sugary and the awesome marshmallow cereal fit that bill. And besides, even if she had just finished taking a shower after a longsword training session with her Watcher this afternoon, in some ways their day was just beginning. It had been a few weeks since they had moved to Tokyo to live with the Fujinos and now that Shizuru had started back at school Natsuki and Midori had been trying to get into a routine to keep the young Slayer busy. Carefully placing her bowl on the counter the little Slayer leapt soundlessly to the floor and poured in the sugary goodness before going to the fridge for some milk.

Natsuki frowned as she reminded herself that she wasn't just training her Slayer abilities to keep herself from being bored, people relied on her being strong and skilled enough to keep them safe. Apparently Midori had read of some suspicious sounding deaths in the newspaper this morning. According to the article the bodies of several children ranging in age from about four to eight had been found with all of their internal organs removed and their traumatized mothers had been found wandering around near the scene with no recollection of what had happened. Putting the milk away Natsuki glanced across the room where her Watcher was lounging in the recliner reading one of her many demonology research books by lamplight.

Natsuki smiled to herself as she decided to go eat her cereal on the floor next to the preoccupied Watcher to keep her company. It was always interesting to see Midori like this, most of the time she acted like this immature overgrown kid who didn't take anything seriously. When she was in research mode like this however she was all business, though she had a tendency to get absorbed in her study and fail to notice hours passing. _Maybe it's the glasses, _Natsuki pondered her green eyes dancing with amusement as she gazed fondly at the redhead. She knew Midori hated the glasses, but she personally thought that the thin silver frames made her Watcher just look more intelligent rather than older. "You figure out what kindof beastie we're looking for yet?" She questioned, smirking slightly when her Watcher jumped. _She really does get lost in her research, she had no idea I was even in the room much less sitting right next to her._

Self-consciously removing her glasses from tired looking hazel eyes Midori glanced over at her Slayer, smiling slightly when she noticed the bowl of cereal. "Yes, I think I have narrowed it down to a species of demon called the Azwarlg. They are fairly rare in the Northern Hemisphere but I suppose it's possible that it got here on an ocean liner or something…" Midori trailed off realizing that Natsuki was probably more interested in the practical details of how to kill this demon than how it got here in the first place. "Uh… anyway the demon we're dealing with is relatively small, the size of a rather petite adult female human. It has particularly tough leathery skin that can be either grey or brown in colour with long slender clawed hands and feet. It also has a long proboscis that it uses for feeding and leathery wings. It can't actually fly but it is capable of gliding if it jumps from height. Usually it walks on all fours with a gait similar to an ape, though it can walk upright for short distances."

"It's no stronger than your average vampire, but as it preys on small children that is usually plenty of strength. The Azwarlg is not as intelligent as a human; it relies on simple ambush predator tactics… during the day it tends to just go into hiding in a swampy area. So in an urban area like this probably the sewer system."

Natsuki's small nose wrinkled in disgust, "But vamps sometimes like to nest there too so it wouldn't really be safe for us to go in there unless we knew exactly where it was. Also I don't really want to go sloshing about in poop to find this thing." Natsuki knew she wasn't yet strong enough to take on more than a few vampires at once, particularly in a situation where the vampires could get the jump on her. She was hoping that when she got older her strength would increase, but Midori hadn't been able to give her a clear answer.

Thankfully Midori nodded her agreement, "I agree, we wouldn't have any way of knowing for certain exactly where it would be holed up during the day. I think our best bet is going to be staking out the park where the attacks have been occurring, that just stinks because it might take a couple of nights. Which in my book certainly isn't as bad as the stink of sloshing through the sewers willy-nilly." Then she grinned at her Slayer who had gone back into the kitchen to put more cereal in the remaining milk in her bowl, "On the plus side I think that there is a guy who sells ice cream at that park."

Natsuki smiled as well, "Sounds good to me. Are we going to head out there tonight?"

Midori nodded, "Yeah I got Hirotaka to lend me a vehicle that won't stick out like a sore thumb in the neighbourhood the park is in. Or at least not in a way that would make someone want to steal it. I'm just going to go get changed into something a little warmer. You go on and finish your cereal and make sure you're dressed warm enough too and then we'll head out."

A short while later they were both in the Fujinos' garage laughing at their ride. "I...I can't… even believe that they have a… a car like this." Natsuki choked out between giggles, "I mean… it's such a piece of crap." The tiny faded yellow hatchback did indeed look horribly out of place next to all of the luxury vehicles. None of the tires had hubcaps, and there were large spots of rust where the paint had worn completely off of the metal. And… "Is that side mirror being held on by duct tape?"

Midori managed to get her laughs under control enough to reply, "Indeed I think it is. Well, Fujino-san doesn't do anything halfway. I told him to get me an old vehicle that wouldn't make us look like we had money. I'm not sure how he found something so authentic on short notice, I'm sure some used car dealer received far too much money for that mechanical zombie this afternoon."

"We'd look like we had more money if we just took the bus."

Midori nodded, "That would have been ideal so we wouldn't need to worry about parking, but unfortunately the busline doesn't come out here to where the rich folk live." She slapped her Slayer lightly on the shoulder, "Alright kiddo, let's get going. Time to find ourselves some ice cream!"

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Natsuki winced sympathetically at the cracking sounds that her Watcher's back made as she stretched out finally free of the tiny car. Midori smiled at her Slayer's concern, "I'm fine shortie, that car just clearly wasn't built with adult-sized humans in mind. Either that or I'm getting old." The redhead did wince at that apparently unpleasant thought.

"You're not old." Natsuki replied automatically. After all, Shizuru's parents were certainly older than Midori and Natsuki knew better than to call Sakuya old.

"Thanks cutie." Midori replied as she scanned up and down the sidewalk next to where they had parked. "I think that the park is just a few blocks ahead of us on the right. I know you can take care of yourself, but try to stick close so I don't get arrested for child endangerment or something with us being out so late alright?"

Although Midori expressed joking concern about having Natsuki out so late at night since it was after dark, nine-thirty at night wasn't all that late for this commercial area of town. Most of the stores they passed on their way to the park were still open for business and would be for several hours, and they had passed several families and single mothers with young children by the time they reached the large public park. The park itself was a nice one with wide stone pathways lined with cherry trees still in full bloom, their pink petals illuminated by the many streetlamps.

A short ways ahead there was the promised ice cream stand, and just behind it was a small playground where there were several children. There were two boys and a girl who looked to be a couple years younger than Natsuki playing while their mothers chatted on a bench nearby. "I have a feeling that this is the place where it strikes Natsuki, but I'll have you stay nearby and watch these children while I take a quick sweep around to look for out streetlamps first as that could also be a good ambush area alright?" Midori spoke softly to her charge, deciding to save the ice cream until after any potential slaying. Natsuki simply nodded and headed off into the playground keeping one eye on her Watcher's tall form until she disappeared from sight around a corner a few moments later.

Absently brushing a few stray cherry petals out of her dark hair the small Slayer took a moment to survey the playground. It wasn't much, just a square sandpit with a swingset and some monkey bars. The children already there were all playing on the swingset, which was flush up against a dense ornamental bamboo forest. _The demon could be hiding in there, but I don't think it would be able to climb the narrow branches in order to glide in…_ Glancing up at the cloud covered sky she noted how they seemed to glow orange from the city lights. She smirked, _If it does try to come from above it would be pretty easy to spot against those anyway._

Checking the perimeter once more she opted to climb the monkey bars and watch for danger from there rather than attempt to approach the other children. The two boys, from the looks of things twins, seemed to be in a contest to see who could swing the highest, likely in an attempt to impress the girl. The little girl who was smaller than either boy with long, wavy black hair seemed quite amused by their antics though she did not seem to care much which of them won. Natsuki smiled indulgently at them but did not allow herself to focus on them for too long. Instead she kept her gaze moving around the perimeter, hoping to prevent the demon getting a drop on one of the children she was trying to protect. There was a flash of red hair in her peripheral vision and Natsuki turned to see that her Watcher had returned. When the Slayer turned to face her fully Midori mouthed, "It's here."

Nodding Natsuki turned back to watching the area around the children as Midori approached the other mothers joining their conversation, though she too kept a closer eye on the children. They were all there for another ten minutes or so, although only Natsuki and Midori were aware that they were waiting for something. Then Natsuki saw it, a black shadow streaking overhead coming so close that she felt the breeze created by its leathery wings. _Damn, how did it get airborne? Maybe it was on a building outside the park and has better eyes than we thought?_ Shaking her head free of her thoughts she launched herself at full force from her own perch five meters off the ground just as the beast grabbed one of the boys when his swing reached its full height.

_Bloody hell! _She cursed to herself as she realized the beast was still airborne, clutching the boy to its chest with sinewy arms. She hit the ground hard getting the air knocked out of her, but ignored her lungs screaming for oxygen as she sprinted along the ground after the demon that was rapidly losing altitude thanks to the extra weight of its prey. She vaguely noted the screams of the other children and their mothers, and Midori's cursing in the distance behind her as she rapidly closed the distance to the demon that was now only a couple meters from the ground.

She desperately launched herself into the air, fearing that if she allowed the beast to land holding its prey it might still be able to use its long claws to rip the boy open no matter how quickly she was able to reach it. She grunted as her body slammed onto the airborne demon's back, silently apologizing to the boy as the demon lost its grip and dropped him to the ground. He let out a cry of pain and Natsuki thought she might have heard a bone break. _Sorry little guy, but I couldn't think of anything else to do._ Then she was gritting her teeth in pain herself as the demon lithely spun them over in midair so that she took both of their weights when they landed at speed on her back, noting sadly that her new jacket was being shredded on the rough concrete as they skidded along the sidewalk.

Not allowing the slight pain of the hard impact to get to her, the Slayer kept her arms in an iron grip around the beast's neck as they struggled against each other on the ground. She quickly realized however that she just wasn't able to choke this creature; the leathery skin around its throat seemed to have a natural armour. _I need to be able to reach my knife._ She pondered, remembering the six inch blade sheathed in her right boot.

Taking a moment to gather her strength she allowed the demon to feel that she was loosening her hold, only to use the leverage provided by it pulling away slightly to flip them both over so that she was on top holding it down firmly with her legs around its torso and a small hand around the back of its neck, firmly pressing its disgusting face into the stone. She ignored the annoyance of its rough leathery wings flapping desperately in her face and the sharp pain in her left leg as its bony tail cut through her jeans and into her flesh as she desperately grabbed for her knife.

Natsuki grinned as her right hand gripped the familiar hilt, quickly unsheathing the thick serrated blade. _Alright you disgusting demon, let's see how you like it when your prey bites back. _Grinning wickedly she forcefully smashed the thick blade into the demon's bald head, her eyes glinting with satisfaction when the knife cut cleanly into the beast's skull. She didn't even wince as the demon's slightly acidic blood splashed onto her face and chest as she twisted the knife slightly, breathing a sigh of relief when the demon stilled under her.

Taking no chances Natsuki wrenched the knife covered in blood and brain tissue from the demon's skull and proceeded to efficiently saw through the thin, armoured neck stopping to catch her breath only when she had completely severed the alien looking head from the unmoving body. The Slayer grimaced in disgust at the huge bulbous insectoid eyes and still twitching proboscis. Coming back from her slaying high she noted with amusement the massive amount of cherry petals that were sticking to the thick demon blood coating most of her front. _I feel like I've been tarred and feathered like those guys in that Huckleberry Finn novel that Midori has been reading to me before bed._

She looked up from her study of the blood and flower covered shirt when she heard her Watcher's raucous laughter a short ways away. "Wow Natsuki it's hard to tell who won from here." The redhead called to her in English.

"I think my head still being on should answer your question." She replied grinning, before nodding to the demon's body. "What should I do with this?"

"Toss it in the lake behind you. The carp should eat it like they do everything else."

"Eew, right. I'll do that while you help the family. No need for us both to get all gross."

The Watcher nodded, "Alright, but be quick about it and come right back. We'll be right over by those benches there."

Effortlessly lifting the body and head of the slain Azwarlg demon Natsuki glanced over at her Watcher, looking quite fearsome despite her friendly smile, "Sure thing, this should only take a moment." Turning away from Midori she walked swiftly towards the large patch of darkness a little ways away that was the lake. Hurling the remains of the demon with all her might out into its glassy depths, Natsuki grinned with satisfaction at the loud splashes and then the smaller ones that followed indicating that the large fish were indeed enjoying the unexpected otherworldly feast. Natsuki stood at the edge of the lake listening for a few moments, worrying idly that feeding the fish demon meat might have unintended side effects. _Aah well, isn't it a Watcher's job to know stuff like that?_

Looking quickly to make sure no one was nearby the young Slayer quickly removed her dark green shirt and washed it along with her arms and face in the comparatively clean water of the lake, praying that no one would see her and care enough to get Midori in trouble. A minute later she pulled her now slightly cleaner shirt back over her head, it was still drenched but at least now it was mostly water instead of demon blood. Lastly she cleaned the blood and gore from her knife before shoving it back into the sheath in her boot. She looked sadly down at her jacket that seemed ripped beyond mending. Picking the pieces up in her arms just in case, she headed back to the main path to look for Midori.

"Natsuki over here!" Midori called loudly, waving at her from where she stood next to one of the park benches, clearly attempting to comfort the injured boy and the other bystanders. Natsuki was somewhat surprised that they were still there, having thought that they would have taken the boy to the hospital for treatment already.

"Is everything alright?" Natsuki asked her Watcher when she approached, looking over the still frightened faces. "He wasn't hurt too badly?" She questioned, gesturing to the boy who had quite nearly been the demon's dinner.

"We were getting ready to take him to the hospital, but I didn't want to leave until we had a chance to thank you." The boy's mother explained hesitantly, "Surely you are a kind spirit who has decided to help my son, I thank you."

Natsuki looked to her Watcher awkwardly, "What do I say to that?" She mouthed in English, unsure what the proper response was to such a mistaken identity. Midori just shrugged, this wasn't in the Slayer Handbook. Rolling her eyes at how unhelpful Midori was Natsuki nodded awkwardly, "It's no trouble, just try to be more careful about being out at night like this, there are more dangerous spirits around than I can take care of." Midori grinned and gently ruffled her Slayer's hair, proud of her quick thinking.

"Will you all be alright to get to the hospital?" Midori asked them quietly.

The still quietly sobbing boy's mother nodded, "Yes thank you, we will head there right away." She turned to Natsuki once more bowing, "I promise that we will be more careful about being out at night from now on." With that the small group turned and moved slowly off towards the approaching park security guards, the injured boy still crying in his mother's arms and the other children looking back over their shoulders at Natsuki with awe in their wide eyes.

After they had left Midori took a more thorough look at her Slayer, noting that she looked a quite bit worse for wear. Her shirt was dripping wet with the sleeves shredded and her left pant leg was ripped below the knee. Despite the half-hearted attempt at washing there was still blood seeping from long shallow scratches on her arms and a much deeper gash in her calf. Sighing to herself at her Slayer's injuries, the Watcher instead asked the question she knew the dark haired girl really wanted to hear instead of the one she wanted to ask, "Are you still wanting to get some ice cream?"

The Slayer scoffed, seemingly unaware of her own injuries her green eyes alive with the excitement left over from her fight. "Of course I do! Do you think the old guy has strawberry?"

Midori smiled indulgently, "If he knows what's good for him." Natsuki's bright laughter followed them as the two tired demon fighters headed back up the brightly lit path covered in cherry blossoms to a well deserved frozen treat.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Still not mine. *sob* ((AN: And thanks again for the nice feedback. ^^ This one's for you. ))

August 1993: Tokyo, Japan

Natsuki grinned broadly as she charged energetically into Midori's room, skidding to a halt just in time to avoid colliding with one of the many book shelves that lined the area around her Watcher's futon. It was still rather early, only about seven-thirty a.m... A time when the Slayer was normally still asleep thanks to her calling's tendency to keep her up later than the average child her age. Today was different though. Today she was turning eight. Not only was today her birthday but this would be the first birthday she had celebrated since her fifth with her mom. It hadn't been a huge party; just the two of them, Nao and a couple of the other nicer kids from her daycare had hung out at their apartment for a few hours and eaten cupcakes. Still it was a good memory.

Natsuki angrily swiped a few tears from her eyes, she had already cried over missing her mother last night. She had stayed up until after midnight to get the helpless emotional breakdown out of the way in private. Midori had told her that Hirotaka would be taking the two of them and Shizuru to the beach today, and she had promised herself last night that she would have as much fun as she could on their trip. There would be no spending the day being sad worrying about her mom still being missing or worrying about the responsibility of being a Slayer. Those things were very important to her, but Midori was constantly trying to tell her that she needed to take time to focus on being happy too, since that is how a warrior kept her will to fight strong.

The Slayer grinned again, green eyes sparkling brightly as she took in the sight of her still sleeping Watcher. The tall redhead was sprawled out on her back with a tanned arm draped across her eyes to block out the morning light coming in through the window. She had apparently kicked off the top covering of her futon during the night, revealing rumpled flannel pyjamas the top of which had ridden up to expose her leanly muscled tanned stomach along with what appeared to be a tiger tattoo. The inked cat's right front claws started at the base of a set of wicked looking still red scars that started higher up under her shirt, and the tip of its tail extended below the waistband of her pants. Her other arm was wrapped securely around a large well worn black stuffed unicorn. Natsuki chuckled, _Aside from the tattoo she looks like a big kid._

Natsuki moved quietly and carefully to the side of her Watcher's futon, after all she didn't really have to wake the redhead for another half hour or so and Midori always worked so hard. The Slayer knew for a fact that the redhead regularly pulled longer hours than she did all without Slayer endurance. Midori always claimed that it wasn't as crazy as it seemed since Natsuki was rather young and still growing unlike a normal Slayer would be, but the dark haired girl knew that her Watcher simply didn't get enough rest.

Gently running one of her hands through her Watcher's sleep tossled hair, she smiled at the quiet contented purring noise. Midori looked so different asleep, her face always had a youthful quality to it, but awake the redhead had this intense energy about her that sometimes made even Natsuki tired. Right now though she looked so peaceful, certainly she didn't seem old enough to be the only guardian of an eight yearold. Especially an eight yearold who was sortof a superhero.

Natsuki hadn't ever really started to think of Midori as her mother, even though it had been eight months since they had been living together. Sometimes she thought of her as sort of an older sister, other times as just a friend who happened to be older than she was. However, to compare how she felt about Midori directly to any of those things wasn't really correct. Perhaps there just wasn't anything to compare the relationship between a Slayer and her Watcher in the world of normal people. After all, they shouldered the burden of a mystical destiny together. The closest thing she could think of would be the relationship of two soldiers who had served in a war together.

The dark haired Slayer jumped slightly when she noticed that those familiar hazel eyes were now open and gazing up at her, their green and gold depths twinkling with amusement. "Hey Birthday Girl, you sure are up early." Midori greeted, her voice husky from sleep.

"Yeah... sorry I didn't mean to wake you. I just couldn't sleep cause I was thinking about going to the beach today."

"It's alright, I was going to have to get up in a few minutes anyway. Besides, I don't mind if my Slayer wants to spend time with me." The redhead grinned mischievously, reaching up and lightly tweaking Natsuki's nose.

Natsuki pouted playfully, "I don't know why I would."

"Aaw no being a grump on your birthday shortstuff! Go get dressed and get anything that you want to keep yourself entertained for the drive there too," Midori slowly sat up, letting out a huge yawn as she stretched, joints popping audibly, before continuing in a still sleep rough voice, "Hiro said it takes a couple of hours to get to the beach we're going to since we need to take some of our fair country's back roads." Midori winced at that thought, "Man, I gotta check to see if we have any Dramamine."

Jumping to her feet the Watcher gently tussled her Slayer's silky hair, "Go on kiddo, I'm gonna go get a shower and some coffee, see if I can't feel human before we head out in a few."

Thirty minutes later she and Midori were in a van with Hirotaka and Shizuru. Natsuki had assumed that they would be going in a limo or something with one of the family drivers, but instead Hirotaka was behind the wheel with Midori sitting next to him in the passenger seat, holding a map with their route to the beach highlighted in fluorescent pink. Shizuru was sitting properly buckled on the middle bench seat of the minivan and Natsuki was of course in the back, leaning against the side of the vehicle with her legs stretched out across the seat. Sakuya had apparently begged off of the trip to the beach, saying that so much direct sun exposure was bad for her skin.

Shizuru was still something of a mystery to Natsuki. Even though they had known each other for almost six months and Shizuru was the only person Natsuki's own age that the Slayer regularly had contact with, they seemed to be having a difficult time forming the close friendship that Natsuki wanted. She supposed it was because they didn't have terribly much in common, apart from Shizuru's naginatajutsu. And even with that, Natsuki hadn't been able to spar with Shizuru yet because Midori didn't think that her control of her Slayer strength was reliable enough, and Shizuru practiced with her naginata more because of familial obligation than because it was something she enjoyed.

Beyond that they were just so different. Natsuki enjoyed weapons, playing outside and playing videogames with her Watcher while Shizuru liked more refined activities like reading, playing piano and spending time with her other friends from school. Also, whenever Natsuki had some spare time that she wanted to spend with Shizuru the girl was annoyingly elusive. She would ask one of the servants if they had seen her, but even if they were certain that the girl was home they were never sure where Natsuki could find her.

To make matters more frustrating her Slayer instincts seemed to be completely useless at tracking Shizuru down, or for that matter detecting the girl even if she was very close by. Like their first conversation in the garden all those months ago, they only seemed to talk when Shizuru decided for whatever reason to seek Natsuki out. They tended to have a couple of perplexing conversations a week, about topics that made no sense to the Slayer but that Shizuru seemed to find highly amusing.

Unlike Natsuki who could never locate the other girl when she wanted to, Shizuru seemed to always know just where to find Natsuki. Of course it was possibly because they lived at her house, so she would know of the Slayer's favourite spots in the gardens while Natsuki invariably felt that she would get in trouble if she was found simply wandering around in the Fujinos' home no matter how many times Hirotaka assured her that was not the case.

Shizuru also seemed to be trying her hardest to figure out what exactly made Natsuki different. During their strange conversations Shizuru was always dropping cryptic remarks about how Natsuki was very strong or fast or some such thing. From time to time Natsuki would be training with one of her weapons and think that she had seen Shizuru out of the corner of her eye, but even with Slayer reflexes once she turned to check the tawny haired girl would be nowhere to be seen. Natsuki knew it was only a matter of time before the girl figured out that she was the Slayer, she certainly already suspected something. She only hoped that her Watcher wouldn't be too mad at her for being unable to keep her secret.

"Hey Shizuru…" Natsuki started shyly, hesitant to distract the older girl from the book she was reading. Natsuki winced seeing all of the advanced kanji running in unbroken vertical lines down the page. She was much closer to being caught up to her reading level for going back to school in April next year, but she was obviously not close to catching up with Shizuru.

"Yes Natsuki?" Shizuru asked, not raising her eyes from the book.

"Um…" The Slayer started again awkwardly, "Uh… I just wanted to say thanks. Um… you know for going to the beach with me today and all."

Now Shizuru did look up from her book, turning to face Natsuki a curious look in her rust coloured eyes, "Of course, where else would I be today but with Natsuki?"

Natsuki shrugged not wanting to say something pathetic, though she did wonder sometimes if the older girl only spent time with her because her father expected it. Green eyes dropped to study calloused palms, noting idly that the gash on her right hand from that huge splinter she'd gotten last night was almost healed. _I have to actually get around to precarving stakes again instead of just ripping branches off trees._

Cool fingers on her chin distracted her from her preoccupation, and she guiltily looked up to see Shizuru gazing at her with open affection. "Natsuki does know that I enjoy spending time with her?" Shizuru asked, her voice serious. Natsuki nodded hesitantly, not sure what to do with a Shizuru who wasn't teasing her. Shizuru sighed and momentarily dropped her eccentric way of speaking, "You're my friend Natsuki. Of course I would want to celebrate your birthday with you."

Feeling overwhelmed Natsuki looked away from those warm rusty eyes and instead looked out the window, watching the passing green mountains of the countryside. After she had a minute to cool her blushing cheeks she glanced back at Shizuru hesitantly to find that the other girl was still gazing at her with concern. "Uh, thanks Shizuru." She swallowed thickly, trying to piece together her thoughts, "Sorry if I'm not good with this friends thing yet, I haven't had too many. Just Midori, and you may have noticed this already, but she's different."

"Hey I heard that shortie!" The redhead called back teasingly from the front.

Natsuki grinned cheekily at her Watcher before looking back at Shizuru, "Anyway, all I'm saying is I'll try my best."

Shizuru nodded seriously, though she seemed to be fighting a smile, "I am sure that Natsuki's best is more than good enough." She then turned back to her book, but not before asking, "I did bring another book with me in case Natsuki would like to read as well?"

"Uh… no that's ok." Natsuki declined, trying not to sound too horrified at the thought. Shizuru just giggled a bit at her friend's discomfort.

A short while later they had arrived at a small stretch of nearly unpopulated beach. There were a few other families there with younger children and a few older couples, but no rowdy teenagers or university students around. _Likely because they would not have enough money to be here_. _Makes sense if the Fujinos like to come here._

Midori had grabbed the large bag with their towels and beach blankets while Hirotaka got the cooler with their lunches and drinks. Natsuki wasted no time in taking off the baggy black t-shirt she had on over her tight midnight blue surf shirt, not bothering to remove her black board shorts as she sprinted into the inviting water. The deep blue water was just cool enough to be refreshing compared to the hot summer sun, and Natsuki enjoyed swimming against the pull of the current and rough waves a bit before she headed back onto the sand, hoping to find a way to spend time with the less adventurous Shizuru.

She spotted the other three easily and ran over. Hirotaka was in black swim trunks, a white t-shirt and a wide-brimmed hat, methodically applying what seemed like way too much sunscreen. It seemed that he shared his wife's paranoia about the sun being bad for ones skin even if he had been willing to brave it for a day. Shizuru was stretched out on her lavender coloured beach towel reading her book while sipping at a can of iced tea. It was a pastime that Natsuki thought was more suited to a middle aged woman than young girl at the beach. Midori's black conservative athletic cut two piece suit brought an almost painful blush to the Slayer's face. Sometimes she forgot how beautiful her Watcher was as she tended to wear mostly long sleeve men's shirts and blue jeans.

Running up to them she laughed as she dripped cold water on her sunbathing Watcher's face. Midori opened an eye and grinned up at her good-naturedly, "The water's nice I see."

"Yeah it's great. The current is a little bit strong though, be careful if you go out there." She commented as she sat down on her dark blue blanket between Midori and Shizuru. "Oh hey, I keep meaning to ask you, when did you get your tattoo?"

"Which one?" Midori asked, and then blushed inexplicably. "Oh right... the tiger. I got that during my first year of field work in Egypt. I had been attacked by a dem… um… a wild cat that had been using the tomb we were excavating as a den. It gave me the scars," She gestured to the angry red marks under her left breast, "and I just decided to get something done to make the marks mine I guess."

Natsuki nodded, holding her Watcher's gaze for a moment longer to indicate that she'd want the full story later when the others weren't around. The Slayer then turned to Hirotaka who had finished with his sunscreen and was now simply lounging back on the large blanket enjoying the sun and trying quite obviously not to look at Midori. "Just remember that you're married alright? Besides she's mine anyways." She commented helpfully to the older man, causing him to laugh nervously and Midori to inhale some of the soda she was drinking.

"Hah, you wish shortie. Come back in like twenty years." The redhead managed to get out around her laughs.

The Slayer grinned evilly at her Watcher, "So you mean it is possible that I could get old enough for you?"

"Pfft, whatever. Go back and play with the sharks if you're just going to make comments like that at me." Midori was grinning though as she reached out playfully to roughly mess up the Slayer's still damp hair. The more reserved Fujinos watched their interaction quietly, Shizuru with amusement and Hirotaka with a mixture of embarrassment and confusion.

For a few minutes three of them sat in comfortable silence while Natsuki tried to summon up some of her legendary Slayer courage to talk to Shizuru. _She even went out of her way to tell me that we're friends, why is this so difficult?_ She thought to herself as she tried not to be obvious about studying the tawny haired girl. Her friend was wearing a surprisingly elegant looking dark purple one piece, and had her wavy hair pulled back in a half ponytail. Her bare feet were hanging off of the edge of the blanket, pink painted toes playing in the sand as she read.

"Uh, Shizuru? …Did you maybe wanna do something? Go for a walk maybe?" Natsuki suggested hesitantly.

"There are some tidal pools in the rocks up that way." Hirotaka suggested helpfully, pointing to an area of the beach where the water came up much closer to the rocky cliffs and the sand was littered with large dark boulders.

Shizuru nodded before gracefully standing and holding out a hand to her friend, "I'd love to take a walk with Natsuki." The dark haired girl grinned as she took Shizuru's hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

The two friends walked slowly along the water's edge enjoying the contrasting feel of the cool wet sand between their toes and the hot sun overhead, in no particular hurry to reach their destination. "Shizuru, what's your favourite thing about the beach?" Natsuki asked after a bit, nervously poking at a broken seashell with her toes.

Shizuru just gave that far too serious smile as she replied, "Natsuki will think it is silly."

"I promise I won't."

The tawny haired girl just shook her head, "It's alright, Natsuki need not pretend for me. I know that Natsuki's favourite thing about the beach is testing herself against the ocean, she enjoys any chance to prove how strong she is."

Green eyes widened a bit, "I… I guess so." She looked suspiciously at Shizuru, "How do you know me so well?"

Shizuru replied teasingly, "I watch Natsuki of course. It isn't difficult to see." They walked a bit longer before she finally hesitantly answered the original question, "I like just relaxing in the sun."

Natsuki didn't laugh, but she also couldn't quite understand the appeal, "I guess I just can't see sitting still like that for so long." She admitted.

The older girl just shrugged, "It isn't in Natsuki's nature to be still. I can't really explain it exactly, there's just something so peaceful and relaxing about just absorbing the warmth from the sun while listening to the waves." She fell silent, as they walked. Natsuki thought her friend wasn't going to continue when she added, "I like to be warm and I like how the sunlight can always make me happier."

The Slayer grinned at that, "I like to be warm too, I just don't like to sit still." As they reached the dark grey seaweed covered rocks where the tidal pools were, Natsuki decided that she would try to open up to her friend a little more, even though she knew she still couldn't share her secret. Finally she spoke just loudly enough to be heard over the waves, "You're right though, I am always trying to prove that I'm strong enough. I guess part of it is because of what happened when I was taken from my mom, I've always felt like I failed her. I wasn't strong enough to make sure I was with her to keep her safe, and now I have no idea what might have happened to her." Sad green eyes looked out over the ocean, seeming to search the horizon for answers, "Sometimes I fear the worst." She whispered.

"But you were so young then, there's no way you could have been that strong right?" Shizuru spoke the words both as a reassurance but also with that hint of searching in her tone, the one that said she suspected something about Natsuki. "I know you well enough to know that you did everything you could do."

Natsuki nodded, "That's why I worry. The world isn't going to wait for me to be strong enough." She turned from the horizon to face her friend, "What if it happens again, but even though I train so hard I'm still not strong enough to protect the people I care about?" Shizuru's rusty eyes seemed to shine with an answering sadness that stabbed sharply at the Slayer's heart. _Why is she so sad? What happened? _

After a few moments she replied, her lyrical tones sounding weary, "I don't think anyone's ever ready for things like that Natsuki. Sometimes things still go our way, but we're never ready."

"I just don't want to lose anyone else."

A sad nod, "I wish I could promise that you won't."

"Me too."

After their talk, the two young friends sat together quietly watching the waves thinking thoughts much too deep for children their age. They were still sitting there a while later when Midori came to get them for lunch, inquiring if they were alright in a cheerful tone but with serious eyes. They said they were fine, but although Midori nodded she also told them that they could always talk to her about anything anytime.

They ended up staying at the beach for another few hours. Natsuki spent some time after lunch in the water alone as she needed some time to think about the conversation she had with Shizuru. After a while Midori joined her for a game of catch in the surf with the American football she had brought with them, ignoring the concerned looks from other adults on the beach at her allowing such a small child to be out swimming in the rough waters. Thirty minutes before they were getting ready to head back, Midori had them get out of the water so that they could dry off a bit to avoid dripping all over the vehicle. However instead of simply relaxing and sunbathing, Midori had them continue their game of catch, throwing the ball so that Natsuki would have to run a lot, hoping to use up a bit more of her Slayer's energy.

At four in the afternoon they all got in the van to head back, making sure that they would arrive back at the Fujinos' house before dark. For the first time Natsuki wondered exactly how much Hirotaka knew about her, as far as she knew he was just an old friend of Midori's father. Sometimes though he said or did things that caused her to think he was in on their secret. She tried listening to the conversation in the van between her Watcher and Shizuru's father on the way back to see if she might be correct, but all they talked about was how Natsuki was doing with getting ready to go back to school next April. _Though of course they aren't going to talk about something secret here, I will have to try to keep a closer eye on them when they don't know anyone else is around._

When they arrived back at the Fujinos' estate everyone took some time to change out of their beach clothes before meeting up in the main dining room for a specially prepared birthday dinner for Natsuki. Jun had made Natsuki's favourite, which was a fairly simple meal of cheeseburgers and French fries. The Slayer managed to eat three of the small burgers with enough mayonnaise to bring disgusted looks to the faces of the normally rather stoic Fujinos. She only held back from eating a fourth because Jun had promised chocolate cake and strawberry ice cream after presents.

The presents were something of a surprise. She had not celebrated any holidays in the First District, but even when she had lived with her mother they had not made a big deal about gift giving. Midori had gotten her some English-language superhero comics and a Super Nintendo which Natsuki had teased she only bought so that they could both play it. When her Watcher had only grinned somewhat guiltily at the accusation however, Natsuki had immediately reassured her that videogames were much more fun played together. The Fujinos had spent much more money on her than she was expecting, having gotten her several books about wolves and a really nice midnight blue mountain bike.

It was a strange feeling, getting gifts from these people. Midori not so much, since they were Watcher and Slayer and Natsuki really felt like she knew how to interact with Midori. The Fujinos though were difficult. Her Slayer instincts were telling her to go grab them in a hug to thank them, like the one she had just released a slightly wincing but still grinning Midori from. But Natsuki still felt so awkward around everyone else, so she decided that she would just write them a thank you card instead. That seemed more the Fujinos' speed anyway, something formal and detached like that. Actually, Natsuki couldn't even remember ever having seen any of the Fujinos hug each other spontaneously, only the occasional delicate one-armed formal hugs at expected moments.

Natsuki contemplated that more carefully while they ate cake and ice cream, trying to keep up her exuberant front which wasn't too difficult since she really was excited about the gifts she had gotten and how nice it was to spend time with her family. There was just something about the formal, professional distance that the Fujinos seemed to keep even within their family, and especially with Shizuru that made the Slayer sad. It made her think about the look in Shizuru's eyes when they were talking on the beach. _What happened to you Shizuru?_

"Hey, Shizuru." Natsuki called again shyly as she and Midori were getting ready to leave to go back to their house, she nodded to her Watcher indicating that she should go ahead.

"Sure thing kiddo, I had one more present I wanted to give you before bed alright?" It was getting dark out, but neither the Slayer nor Watcher had ever seen any vampire activity this far out from the city.

"Thanks Midori, I won't be long." Natsuki smiled as Midori gave her a rough pat on the shoulder before heading back to their small house near the woods. Natsuki watched her go for a moment before turning back to her friend who was looking down at her shoes blushing faintly like she had been the first day they met. "I just wanted to say thanks for getting me such nice gifts for my birthday. I know that your parents gave them to me too, but I know they were your ideas, since you know that those are things I like. The bike will really be great once I can go back to school next spring."

Shizuru looked up from staring at her feet, an unexpected return to shyness, and rested rust coloured eyes on the slightly shorter girl. "I'm glad that Natsuki liked them." She said softly, shyly scuffing one of her sandaled feet on the rocky garden path.

Growling to herself and ignoring the startled look in those rusty eyes at the feral noise, Natsuki closed the short distance between them and wrapped the older girl in a hug, being extra careful not to use too much strength. "I mean it, I haven't gotten any gifts like that in a long time and it is really special that you thought of me." Pulling back awkwardly she noticed that Shizuru was blushing almost as hard as she did sometimes when she was teased. "Sorry if that was weird…"

Shizuru shook her head hastily, "No… no it was fine. It was… really nice. I'm just not used to… well… getting hugs." Confused rusty eyes gazed into Natsuki's for a moment before that perpetually amused expression was back, the one that Natsuki was beginning to suspect was used to hide her friend's true feelings. "I find that I enjoy Natsuki's hugs though, she is free to share them with me whenever she likes."

Natsuki nodded seriously, for once not blushing at her friend's teasing. "And you should feel free to ask me if you feel like you need one." Looking down the darkened garden path toward her small house she continued, "Anyway I'm going to go spend some quality time with Midori. Really thanks again Shizuru, I'm glad we're friends."

Shizuru just gave the younger girl one of her mysterious smiles, "Natsuki is most welcome." With a small wave she turned to head back into the large house, tawny hair fluttering elegantly around her shoulders. _Does anyone know the real Shizuru?_

She ran a hand roughly through her dark hair, letting out another growl as if to try and chase away this problem she didn't yet understand. A problem that she already feared could not be fixed with the powers of a Slayer. She gazed up at the familiar second story window to a room she had never been in until a light came on, _Shizuru's room_, for a few more minutes before slowly turning to walk towards the small house she shared with Midori.

"Hey Midori, I'm back." She called loudly as she stepped through the sliding door, removing her boots.

"Just a second, I'll be right out!" Midori called from her bedroom. Natsuki just nodded even though she knew her Watcher couldn't see, and went to go flop down on the couch in front of the television, not bothering to turn it on. After a couple minutes the tall redhead emerged from her room, still dressed in the dark green tank top and well worn dark brown leather pants she had worn to dinner. "Anyway…" Midori started awkwardly, "I forgot to wrap this, but it didn't seem like the kindof thing that one wraps anyway."

Midori fiddled with something that she was holding in her left hand for a moment, seeming to search for words before finally she just held out her left fist. When Natsuki held out her hands, the redhead dropped the object into her open palms. It was a simple large silver cross pendant on a long worn black leather cord, obviously intended to be worn as a necklace. "It was my father's, and I want you to have it."

Natsuki gasped, "But this was your father's! You can't give this to me, I'm just…"

Midori knelt down on the floor in front of the dark haired girl, "Hey now. Natsuki look at me." Gently catching stormy green eyes with her own she continued firmly, "You're my Slayer. My father was a Watcher too, that cross is for a Slayer, to help keep her safe. The Potential he trained was never Chosen, so she ended up returning it to him after she got married. I had been meaning to give it to you before now; I just hadn't found the right time." Midori continued hesitantly, "I mean I know you aren't really Christian or anything, neither am I actually, but it still works against vampires."

Natsuki just nodded, momentarily speechless. Not knowing what else to do she held out the necklace indicating that Midori should help her put it on. After she had tied the leather cord securely, Midori found herself in another breath stealing Slayer strength hug which she returned as strongly as she could. "Thank you Natsuki, it means so much to me for you to wear that. If he were still alive it would mean a lot to my dad too."

Finally Natsuki managed to speak, her voice hoarse with tears, "You're so good to me."

Midori just smiled as they sat hugging for a few more minutes before they both started to feel uncomfortable. "So… what do you say no training tonight, let's just set up that new Super NES and play some games?"

The dark haired girl nodded, "We have the new Final Fantasy game?"

Midori rolled her eyes, "I don't see why you like that stuff but yeah I bought FFV." After a few minutes of fiddling around with cables to set the new gaming system the two were soon spending a fun demon free evening.


	9. Chapter 9

DISCLAIMER: Alas, they still aren't mine. *sob*

AN: Again with the lovely feedback! Love the MH fan community, you're all so nice. I hope you continue to enjoy the story! Another fluffy chapter for you, but don't worry we'll be getting so some action soon.

December 1993: Fujino Residence

She was supposed to be getting dressed to go to Shizuru's tenth birthday party right now, but instead here she was standing looking at her topless reflection in her floor length mirror. It wasn't as though she was even much to look at, the same thin body, her still flat boyishly muscular chest and pale skin looked much like they had months ago save for perhaps some added muscle definition from training extra hard lately. It was just that when she was looking for a shirt, the scars on her body had suddenly caught her eye in a way they hadn't before. _But why though?_

She stepped closer to the glass, noticing the same three wide pale white scars running vertically down muscled forearms from elbow to wrist. Her chest also had the pattern of the three wide scars black in colour, one set crossing the other to make a large romanji X. There were other single scars here and there on her upper arms and flat stomach as well. She idly frowned, thinking how much less cool the chest scars were going to look when she got breasts, but then grinned when she realized why they had caught her eye in the first place. _It looks like the X-men symbol._

Midori had a bunch of Marvel back issues that she mail-ordered from a hobby store that she used to frequent in London. Apparently the older redhead was on a huge comic book kick lately. _My Watcher is a bigger kid than I am sometimes._ After the redhead finished reading the latest ones, she'd give them to Natsuki claiming that they'd help her English.

"Hey Midori!" She yelled in English, "Come here real quick."

"Yeah Shortie what is it?" The Watcher grumbled as she poked her head into Natsuki's room, "Hey put a shirt on you barbarian! What am I raising, a cave-Slayer?"

Natsuki rolled her eyes, "There's nothing to see anyway except what I wanted to show you." She pointed at her X-scar, "Do you think the First District would take me back for a bit to give me cool metal claws like Wolverine?" She asked, referring to her favourite character in the comics.

Midori just rolled her hazel eyes at her Slayer's antics, "You would like to have some built in weapons like that huh little Slayer?" She grinned too at the thought, "Anyway, I hate to tell you this but that's not going happen. Because if any of those First District bastards showed up here I'd put some giant splinters in their faces with my crossbow. Now hurry up and get a shirt on so that you won't alienate _all _of the other kids at Shizuru's party."

Natsuki playfully stuck out her tongue at her Watcher, "Please any boys there would kill to look this good." She grinned as she flexed in demonstration.

"Well, as I'm not a creepy paedophile like half of the old men in this crazy country who watch anime, I'm afraid I can't comment." Midori turned and left the room to avoid encouraging her Slayer's antics. "Hurry up!"

"Abuse!" Natsuki whined pitifully, but getting no response she just laughed as she walked back over to the drawer with her shirts in it. She finally decided on a black long sleeve t-shirt with a large grey and blue wolf howling at a full moon on the front. She finished off her outfit by threading her thick brown leather belt through the loops on her faded jeans sagging them a bit as they were getting a little too short. Lastly she grabbed her cross from the dresser and slipped the leather cord over her neck before tucking it inside her shirt. _Need to go shopping soon, I think I'm actually growing. Also I'll have to see if Midori can get me a shirt with the X-men logo or something. Or maybe Wolverine or Wolfsbane! That would be so cool._

Now that she had stopped goofing off and was actually ready to take the short walk over to Shizuru's house, Natsuki felt the nerves she had earlier coming back full force. _I really hope she likes her present!_ It had taken the Slayer a long time to come up with a good gift for Shizuru that wouldn't be something that anyone else would give her; finally she had decided to get walkie-talkies for the two of them. She and Midori had tested a set of them around the Fujino estate, checking that the range would be large enough. To both of their nerdy delights the signal for the toys was static free on most of the property, even indoors between the two houses. Midori had commented that she wanted one too, to which Natsuki had told her Watcher to buy a set in a different colour for New Years or something, joking that they could use them while out slaying.

Natsuki walked out into the large sitting room and kitchen to get her worn clunky brown leather boots from the rack by the door as well as her black leather jacket. She looked around and was surprised to see Midori sprawled on the couch in socked feet playing Metroid on the NES. "Yo Midori, are you not going?" She asked nervously.

Midori just shook her head, glancing over to her Slayer casually before turning back to her game. "I'll be by later in the evening for dinner, but this afternoon I don't need to be over there. They have other adults around who can help babysit."

Natsuki walked over and sat down on the couch next to her Watcher, ignoring that she was wearing her boots already, "But Midori, I've never been around so many other kids without you there. Not since _before_ anyway."

The redhead paused her game and put down the controller, drawing her Slayer into a one armed hug, "Cutie, you've killed demons bigger than I am without me there." At her Slayer's 'no duh' look she tried to explain differently, "I want you to get used to interacting with other kids so that you'll be ready for school, which by the way is only months away now. Just think of it like a training mission alright? Don't let any of the kids intimidate you just because you're not allowed to slay them. Though try not to do anything to draw too much attention to yourself, especially in front of any parents."

Listening to her Watcher ramble, Natsuki suddenly realized that Midori was nervous about Natsuki going to the party alone too but was trying not to show it. "Don't worry Midori, I'll be alright." She said, giving the same feral grin she used on demons to show them that she had no fear.

"That's my Slayer, now go on and try and have some fun alright? I'll be by in a few hours."

The Slayer gave her Watcher a quick hug before rising to her feet and grabbing the clumsily wrapped present from the kitchen counter before heading outside. It was a nice sunny early afternoon, but the December sun had done little to raise the temperature which held steady at a chilly, though not cold eleven Celsius. The trees in the woods behind her small house had mostly dropped their leaves save for a few evergreens, and the garden had no flowering plants outside the ornate greenhouse across the way.

Taking a deep breath to steel her courage the athletic eight year-old walked swiftly up the path to the kitchen entrance. She entered the busy kitchen and loudly greeted Jun who was putting some last minute decorations on the large vanilla cake. The white icing trimmed with intricately iced green vines and lavender roses was rather impressive. "Hey Jun-chan, you know where the others are hanging out?" She asked casually, trying to cover up her nerves by imitating her Watcher's bold mannerisms.

Jun smiled kindly at her though he hardly spared her a glance as he was so busy today. "Hey Natsuki-kun," He greeted, returning the playfulness, "I think they were in the game room on the other end of the house. Sakuya-sama wished to keep any potential destruction to the area of the house with the least amount of fine arts."

Natsuki rolled her eyes, "They're just a bunch of kids, I'm sure they'll like the game room fine."

"You too Natsuki-kun, try to have fun alright? And make sure Shizuru-hime has some fun too, even if it is her birthday." He added firmly.

Natsuki nodded, offering the older man a casual wave as she headed out the heavy double doors and down the long hall. The sounds of the various other kids who had already arrived reached her Slayer hearing, letting her know she was heading in the right direction even though she'd only been to this room once before. When she spent time with Shizuru inside this house it was normally in the large library, Natsuki preferring to do something that the older girl enjoyed. Also Shizuru had been helping get Natsuki completely caught up to grade four reading level in preparation for April.

When the dark haired girl hesitantly opened the door to the game room she was assaulted by an overwhelming number of loud voices. Trying to enter unnoticed her eyes drifted over to Sakuya sitting in one corner with a pained look on her face like she was fighting a migraine. Natsuki approached her cautiously before quietly asking where they were keeping the presents. Shizuru's mother gestured over to a rather large pile in the corner near the pinball machines, bravely offering Natsuki a small smile. "Can I get you anything Sakuya-sama?" Natsuki asked politely.

Sakuya just shook her head sadly, "I am afraid I already took my medication, so unless you have some magic to make a bunch of nine and ten yearolds shut up I fear I shall just have to tough it out."

Natsuki kept concerned green eyes on Sakuya's brown ones for a moment before nodding, "Alright, but if there's anything I can get you just say. Maybe I can go get Midori to fill in for you for thirty minutes or so to see if your meds will work faster?"

Sakuya nodded at that suggestion, "Thank you sweetie, I'll come get you if it gets too bad."

After she placed her poorly wrapped present with the other gifts, Natsuki quickly searched the room for her friend only to find her surrounded by a bunch of other children. The dark haired girl felt awkward announcing herself to Shizuru when it would draw the attention of so many others. Natsuki instead took a place leaning casually against the pool table gazing at her friend and hoping to catch her gaze. While she waited she also tried to get a read on some of the other children in the room.

They all seemed to have gravitated around the sitting area in the room where there were a couple of large comfortable leather couches and some chairs in front of a huge television. Some anime that no one was really paying attention to was on the screen, all of the kids seemed to be trying to talk with Shizuru instead. The birthday girl was sitting on the middle cushion of one of the sofas, a tall boy with black hair in a tailored suit on her right and a husky looking girl with curly blonde hair wearing a rather ugly frilly green dress on her left. Shizuru looked nice in an elegant long red velvet dress, her hair tied back in a loose ponytail with a matching red ribbon.

There were two other boys in the room, a shorter light brown haired boy in khakis and a red polo shirt, and a tan skinned boy with messy black hair in torn jeans and a sweatshirt. The three other girls included a rather small girl with short messy brown hair and glasses in a green skirt and frumpy yellow sweater who was sitting on the floor next to the blonde girl. The other two girls were sitting on the other couch by themselves, though they did answer any comments one of the other children sent their way. One had short chin-length black hair and preppy boyish clothes, while the other one had long brown hair and bright blue eyes and was wearing a long light blue dress.

Natsuki had only been watching the group for a few minutes when Shizuru looked up, "Natsuki!" She squealed happily, her calm demeanour changing instantly at the sight of her friend. The Slayer offered her friend a casual wave before the older girl threw herself into Natsuki's arms. "I'm so glad you came." She murmured.

"Like you said on my birthday, I'm your friend so of course I'd go to your stupid party." Natsuki grumbled, though her green eyes gave away how happy she was. "I'm a little nervous to be around so many people, but don't worry about me, just have fun." She admitted, warily studying the surprised expressions on the other children's faces.

Shizuru reluctantly took a step back from the younger girl and turned to her other friends, "Everyone I'd like you to meet my Natsuki."

Natsuki inclined her head slightly to the others, "Hey."

"The two girls on the couch there are Chie and Aoi."

"Nice to meet you Natsuki." Chie said, grinning broadly. Aoi just gave her a shy wave though her blue eyes were kind.

"The boys are Reito, Tate and Takeda." She pointed to each of them.

"Pleased to meet you." Reito greeted her politely, though Tate and Takeda just grunted in her general direction before going back to talking between each other.

"And certainly not least the blonde is Haruka and that is her good friend Yukino." She said gesturing to the husky blonde and her mousey friend.

"Why did you invite your servant to a birthday party?" Haruka questioned loudly, looking critically at the younger girl.

Natsuki tensed up and concentrated on keeping her breathing even, trying to lessen the urge to fight. Shizuru's expression did not change noticeably but Natsuki recognized the controlled tones that she was speaking in, "Natsuki is here because she is my friend."

Haruka scoffed openly, clearly ready to dispute Shizuru's claim when her mousey haired friend placed a soft restraining hand on her knee, looking up at the taller girl pleadingly. Finally the husky girl just shrugged, "Fine whatever, doesn't matter to me what you make friends with." Yukino looked embarrassed by her friend but didn't speak up only mouthing, 'sorry' to the two of them.

"I'm sorry about Haruka, she has a tendency to say offensive things sometimes. She's been helpful to me at school, but that is no excuse for her to treat you poorly." Shizuru spoke very softly over the resumed chatter of the others, but Natsuki's Slayer hearing easily picked up her words.

"It's no big deal Shizuru." She shrugged, "Plenty of people have said worse things about me."

"In my presence, no one should say bad things about Natsuki." Shizuru said louder, making sure everyone was paying attention. "She is my friend, anyone who says cruel things about Natsuki should not say them where I can hear." For the first time Natsuki saw something of a fighter's fire in Shizuru's now crimson eyes, and even being a Slayer she would not have wanted that look directed at her. The other children swiftly nodded. Shizuru smiled sweetly once again at their agreement, "Great! Now let us move on from this unpleasantness and enjoy ourselves shall we?"

At the repeated nods Shizuru turned her attention away from them and back to Natsuki. "Now, you don't need to be sitting over here all alone either, why don't you come sit with everyone else?"

"Alright." Natsuki agreed without complaint, recognizing a request that was an order easily enough. Almost before Natsuki had even agreed Shizuru had grabbed her hand possessively and was dragging the dark haired girl over to talk to Chie and Aoi.

"Hey Shizuru-san! Thank you again for inviting us, it's always nice to spend some time with you outside of school." Aoi spoke softly as they sat down next to the two nice girls, Shizuru on the sofa and Natsuki on the floor. "And it is nice to meet you Natsuki-san, don't let Haruka's big mouth get to you alright?"

"HEY I HEARD THAT!"

Chie rolled her eyes and shot back, "Well stop saying stupid stuff all the time then and this wouldn't be necessary." Chie leaned in closer to Natsuki, her light brown eyes glinting with interest, "So Natsuki-kun, Shizuru-san tells me that you will be going to school with us next year?"

Natsuki's first inclination was to tell the nosy girl that it was none of her business, but then she remembered that she needed to practice blending in a bit with other children. "Yeah… I'll be a year behind Shizuru though."

Aoi nodded, "Well you look a bit younger than we are, so that only makes sense."

"I turned eight in August!" Natsuki defended herself. Aoi just grinned and shook her head with amusement.

"You're a year behind us then silly and young for your grade too." Chie laughed.

Natsuki just shrugged, not really wanting to reveal that she didn't really know much about how school worked, since she had not attended in so long. "Do you like going there?"

Chie shrugged too, "It's alright. My favourite is art class by the way."

"I like colouring sometimes…" Natsuki commented hesitantly, not really knowing much about art.

Aoi patted Natsuki on the shoulder, hastily removing her hand when the younger girl tensed under her touch, "Hey, I'm sure you'll be just fine. I know I can't wait until winter break starts next week! Shizuru-san, are you and your family doing anything fun for Christmas and New Years?"

Shizuru shook her head, a hint of something shining in her eyes that was gone before Natsuki could identify it, "Not for Christmas, we'll probably go visit the shrine for New Years though."

At a tap on her shoulder, Natsuki looked up to see the tall figure of Reito looking down at her with a calm expression on his darkly handsome features, "Me and the guys were wondering if you wanted to play some billiards with us?"

Natsuki looked passed him to see Tate and Takeda standing behind him with amused looks on their faces. "Uh… just me?" She asked, looking around at the other girls she was sitting with.

Reito nodded, "Well, since you're new we figured it'd be nice to get to know you a little better. Plus you seem more… competitive than the other girls would be."

"What did you say Reito? I'm just as competent as she is!" Haruka objected loudly from her spot on the couch where Yukino was now sitting next to her.

"Competitive…" Yukino murmured almost absently, correcting her friend as the others tried to hide their amusement.

Shizuru giggled, "Haruka-chan is also the very definition of competency I'm sure." Shizuru looked up at Reito with that same dangerous glint in her eye, "Natsuki only need play with you if she wishes and you will treat her nicely."

Reito looked away and held his hands up in front of himself defensively, speaking sincerely but with a look in his eyes that made the Slayer instantly feel this boy could not be trusted, "No need to worry Shizuru-san, my friends and I will be polite to Natsuki-san."

Realizing that she wanted to figure out what this boy was up to Natsuki slowly rose to her feet, casually rolling her shoulders back as she held Reito's dark brown eyes with her own. "Of course Shizuru doesn't need to worry, she knows I can take care of myself." She flicked her eyes to the other two boys, but then turned and headed over to grab a cue, grinning a bit to herself as she hefted it. _This is like the polearm version of the Slayer's weapon of choice._

"So Natsuki-san," Reito started, his tone casual as though the answer meant nothing to him, "I hear you don't go to school. Why is that I wonder?" As he asked he set up the table for their game. Apparently she would be playing him first; Tate and Takeda were sitting out this one. They would play the next game and then the winners of each would play each other. Natsuki hadn't quite decided yet if she was going to try to win.

The pool table was awkwardly high for all four children except for Reito who was unusually tall for a boy his age. Even Tate and Takeda were several inches taller than Natsuki, but the small Slayer was used to fighting against things much larger, so she figured standing on her tiptoes to try and play this game couldn't be too difficult. She looked up to see Reito looking at her expectantly and remembered he'd asked her a question. "It's not really any of your business is it?"

Natsuki knew that she was supposed to be trying to get along with these children, but there was really just something about Reito that rubbed her the wrong way. He also seemed vaguely familiar, like she had met him before although she knew she had not. Reito didn't seem to be upset with her for brushing off his question, he just nodded calmly. "You want to go ahead and break?"

The Slayer nodded, she'd only played this game a few times with Midori before. The Watcher had always beaten her horribly, but Natsuki had always figured that was because she was part English and wasn't this was like their game or something? Shaking her head a bit to clear the unnecessary thoughts she set up the cue. Giving it a tap with just a little bit of Slayer strength she grinned at the satisfying explosion of colour when the cue ball powered into the others. When they had come to a rest she grinned, noting that the three, seven and ten balls were pocketed and it was still her turn. _Heh, I know I'll kick this smug little rich boy's ass._

"How do you know Shizuru anyway?" She asked in a bored tone, unable to pretend too convincingly that she much cared about anything else about him. Natsuki didn't look at him to wait for his answer, instead setting up her shot for the one ball that was all the way across the table from the cue. Tate and Takeda were leaning up against a nearby wall chatting with each other, apparently about some girl a year older than them at school who was growing breasts already. Natsuki rolled her eyes and tried to block out their conversation.

"Well, we're just in the same class… I live with my grandfather, Makoto Minagi. My mother left us when I was younger and my father used to work up north or something. We haven't heard from him in a while though, but we were never close." Reito shrugged as though it didn't matter to him. Natsuki eyed him somewhat suspiciously after sinking her shot, but then turned her eyes back to the table as she tried to set up her next one. This was going to be tricky, the two ball was surrounded by stripes and she didn't want to give the smug boy any help. She sighed, deciding to play it safe and settled on just trying to separate it out for next turn. _If this is the game of choice for snotty rich boys I'm gonna have to get Midori to help me practice._ _Oh yeah… it would be polite to say something._

"Um, I'm sorry to hear about your mom." Natsuki offered, being able to relate to what it was like to not know where your mother was. She did not offer any details about herself to him though.

"It's alright, I hardly remember her I was so young when she left." His tone was rather emotionless while mentioning her. Natsuki looked up at him curiously after finishing her shot and waiting for him to take his turn. She figured anyone would miss their mother, even if they only missed the idea of having any mother. "Your mother is the redhead that works for Fujino-san?"

Natsuki shook her head, finally revealing something about herself, "No I'm adopted. I don't think of her as my mother even though I like Midori a lot."

Reito grinned triumphantly as he pocketed the nine ball. "I'm glad we both manage to have people to live with. It is interesting that you and this Midori-san are so close."

The younger girl looked at him suspiciously, again seeing that glint of something in his eyes that told her that while this conversation seemed harmless, maybe he was talking about something else that she didn't see. "Of course we're close, she adopted me." She grinned as he scratched on this shot, the cue missing its mark and landing in the corner pocket behind it. Sauntering over and casually fishing out the white ball she set it up for a good shot at the two ball. "Anyway that still doesn't explain why you're friends with Shizuru really. Why do you two get along?"

Reito looked frustrated at Natsuki's obvious attempt to change the subject, but as she had counted on he was unwilling to be openly rude like she was. Still, he wasn't above making some vaguely disguised insults, "Well the Fujinos are a well-respected family, it is only logical that someone like myself from another such family would befriend their heir. I wouldn't really expect someone like you to understand the details though."

Natsuki just shrugged, not really caring for the complications of rich people unless they were directly hurting the Fujinos. "Whatever." She ignored him for a bit concentrating on the game, pocketing the two, four and five balls before scratching on the six. "Bloody hell!" She cursed rather loudly in English at losing her turn.

"You're a Christian? That's unusual." Reito asked suddenly as he took his turn eyeing the eleven ball that was dangerously close to the eight ball.

"No why?" _This guy is so nosy._

"Well, you are wearing a big cross around your neck." He commented casually as he skilfully managed to get the eleven in the pocket, avoiding the eight ball handily. The twelve was unfortunately not where it could be hit easily, and he ended up scratching again sighing lightly in frustration.

Looking down somewhat startled she noticed that her cross had indeed fallen out of her shirt. Again she sensed that tone in his voice that said he was fishing for information, though she didn't know what some random kid could possibly know. Casually she walked around the table to set up her next shot, trying not to show that she was effected by his comment. "I just like it is all." She answered, not giving him any details. When she looked up from her next shot however she saw that he was still looking at her with that searching expression and narrowed her eyes at him.

She felt a fatherly hand on her shoulder and looked up to see the friendly grin of Hirotaka. Silently she thanked him for the distraction. "Hey there Natsuki-kun, you managing to enjoy yourself with these ruffians?"

"Hey!" Tate and Takeda protested, "We were just hanging out here." Tate defended.

"I'm just messing with you, I know my daughter wouldn't make friends with any ruffians." He threw a hard look at them that caused them to shift uncomfortably, "Anyway, I was just coming over to let you all know that we were getting ready to do presents."

Since Natsuki was clearly winning their game Reito nodded, eager to end the game now before he actually lost. "Of course Fujino-san, thank you again for inviting us."

Natsuki just rolled her eyes, and walked over with Hirotaka to help with bringing the presents over to the sitting area. Once they were all set up she took a seat on the floor next to Shizuru, "You still having fun?" She questioned her friend quietly.

"I am, thank you Natsuki. Did you enjoy playing with the other boys?"

The Slayer grumbled, "Hey, I'm a girl!" As the other children laughed at her outburst.

Shizuru just laughed, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't tease Natsuki, she is much too pretty to be a boy."

Blushing the younger girl hastily tried to get the attention of the others away from herself, "Uh… it's fine. Presents! You should open them!" She grabbed a fancily wrapped blue box from the top and shoved it forcefully into the tawny haired girl's hands, causing the others just laughed louder.

In typical fashion Shizuru took her time opening each gift, never ripping open the wrapping paper like Natsuki would have done, instead delicately removing it and setting it aside with care. Natsuki was rather impressed by the gifts as until this year she had not gotten gifts from her friends. _Rich people sure are different… _

Chie had gotten Shizuru a nice camera and Aoi had gotten her several books that Natsuki had not heard of. Haruka and Yukino a tea set that looked expensive even to Natsuki who knew nothing about such things. She found herself involuntarily reaching for her knife in her boot when she saw the creepy looking porcelain doll that Reito had given her. _This is a theme, expensive things I know nothing about._ The only gifts that Natsuki understood were the ones Takeda and Tate had given Shizuru, and that was just because they had given her cards with yen in them. A startlingly large amount of yen that Natsuki couldn't relate to. _I've never seen that much money in one place before._

Hearing a snort of amusement she looked up to see her Watcher standing in the back next to a still rather tired looking Sakuya. Midori winked at her and rolled her eyes. Natsuki grinned back, happy that someone else in the room understood how crazy this was. Then Natsuki blushed violently again when Shizuru kissed her on the cheek after opening her present. "Thank you! Natsuki is so thoughtful."

The other children looked confused as to exactly what the use of the younger girl's gift even was, after all it was obviously just some cheap thing from the toy store. Only Chie seemed to understand what they were, "Oh those things are pretty cool! I've been wanting to try them out. Is the range on them any good?" She questioned Natsuki with excitement.

Natsuki grinned; she decided she rather liked Chie. "Midori and I tested a set out the other day; they work from one end of this property to the other, even if one or both of them is indoors."

"Wow that is amazing! I'm impressed that they work so well without being connected by a wire like that. Makes you really wonder what they'll be able to do with technology like that in a few years. I know my dad has a big clunky cellphone thing that he uses to keep up with the office, but apparently they're too expensive for just anyone to use." Chie rambled on about the little bit of technology that was Natsuki's gift. Natsuki just smiled and nodded at the older girl's enthusiasm, not really knowing enough to comment on the details.

"I just wanted a way to talk to Shizuru more often. We live right next door but she can be so difficult to track down!"

Chie grinned conspiratorially leaning in to whisper in Natsuki's ear, glancing past her new friend to see Shizuru looking at them with rusty eyes twinkling. "Shizuru-san is like that at school too, it's impossible to find her if she doesn't want to be found."

After presents they all moved into the dining room for cake. Natsuki was impressed with the decorating job Jun and the other staff had done. The table was covered with a white table cloth that was decorated with various purple flowers, the expensive chandeliers had streamers and there were vases on every other surface with roses in the same colour theme. Natsuki walked up to Jun who was standing in the corner to compliment him on a job well done before going to sit at the table with the other children.

She ended up sitting on the end next to Takeda and across from Aoi who was next to Chie. Shizuru was sitting at the head of the table with Reito and Haruka on either side of her. Natsuki noted with some amusement that she was obviously sitting on the boys' side of the table. Natsuki ended up being teased by everyone when she ate more cake and ice cream than any of the older children without realizing it. Takeda who was sitting next to her just stared, a look of shock on his tanned face.

After they all finished stuffing themselves with cake they headed back to the gameroom, Natsuki being eager to start a new game of pool with Reito so that she could kick his butt. When they entered she was slightly disappointed to see that Hirotaka and her Watcher were already engaged in a game, though she was amused to see how much Midori was winning by. As the other children went back to the television area, she walked over to her Watcher to give her a high five while Hirotaka was taking his turn, trying gamely to catch up. "I see you've talked someone else into playing pool with you." Natsuki greeted.

Hirotaka rolled his eyes as he tried to set up his shot, "You got that right Natsuki-kun. I can't believe I let myself fall victim to this!"

Natsuki just laughed as she allowed her Watcher to pull her into a one-armed hug and ruffle her hair. "I can't help it if I'm good can I Natsuki?" The redhead grinned cheekily, looking into her Slayer's green eyes. "You doing alright with the others?"

She nodded replying in English, "Yeah most of them seem nice enough. I dunno about that Reito kid though, he seems like he's up to something but I can't think of what…"

Midori poked her Slayer's nose playfully, "Well, you can't expect to get along with everyone. He's probably just being a boy that age, I wouldn't worry."

Natsuki wasn't convinced, but she nodded anyway knowing that she would need more evidence to convince Midori that she wasn't just imagining things. _I'll have to keep an eye on him at school next year. _She hung out around the pool table with her Watcher and Hirotaka for a few more minutes before Midori noticed what she was doing. "Hey, what are you doing hanging out with us old people anyway? Go talk with the other kids some more." Noticing the tired look in her Slayer's eyes she continued gently, "Go on, the party should only be another hour or so before their parents come pick them up anyway."

Growling softly Natsuki shot her Watcher a glare before heading back over to where the other kids were hanging out, pointedly ignoring her and Hirotaka's amused laughs. Zeroing her gaze in on Shizuru, Natsuki almost didn't notice the aggressive movements of the other person approaching her from the side until they were almost on her. Seeing the movement at the last moment she turned swiftly, coming face to face with Haruka who moved well into Natsuki's personal space before stopping. So close that Natsuki could feel the larger girl's hot breath on her face.

Natsuki wrinkled her nose, the slightly off scent of the husky girl's breath making all the cake she had just eaten sit a bit uneasily. "Hey shrimp, I wanted to talk to you alone." The blonde growled roughly at her, indicating the door to the gameroom.

The Slayer just shrugged unconcerned. It might be helpful to hear exactly what this annoying girl's problem with her was. "Alright, let's go." She turned and headed for the door, not checking to see if Haruka followed. After they exited the gameroom she looked around trying to find a good place that they wouldn't be disturbed, finally she headed for the nearby door that lead outside to the gardens. There were still a couple hours of daylight left, and while it was a bit chilly outside the Slayer rarely got cold and didn't much care if the annoying girl who wanted to be rude to her was comfortable. "Come on, we can talk out here without being interrupted."

Natsuki forcefully opened the door, not holding it open for the other girl as she walked outside, breathing in the refreshingly cool air. Walking over to the waist high stone wall that lined the path Natsuki leaned casually against it, looking over at a nearby fountain. She only had to wait for a few moments before she felt Haruka's rough hand on her shoulder attempting to turn the younger girl around to face her. "Hey I wanted to talk to you!"

Natsuki resisted the pull, shoving the other girl's hand off of her shoulder before slowly turning around to face the tall blonde. She held her dark brown eyes with her own for a moment taking a deep breath for calm before speaking, "Well, we're here. What did you want to talk about?"

"I don't suppreciate some low class trash like you trying to take advantage of the Fujinos." The blonde stated bluntly, again reaching out a hand to shove Natsuki in the chest.

Natsuki growled softly, struggling against her instinct to fight back when struck, as she didn't want to cause herself or her Watcher trouble over this annoying girl. "Listen you stupid brat. Midori _works for_ Fujino-san. He pays her for her work by allowing us to stay here. We do not take advantage of the Fujinos." She spoke slowly and in small sentences, hoping that if she kept it simple this girl might understand.

"Fine. So hired your gaijin fake mother to do something. He's probably having an affair with her."

Her anger flared hot and she shoved the blonde hard, she snarled sharp white teeth flashing as the larger girl stumbled backwards. "Don't you _dare_ talk about them like that."

The blonde didn't back down, shoving Natsuki with all her strength though the Slayer didn't budge, "And so what if he's giving you trash a place to live. That doesn't mean you should be talking to Shizuru-chan and garnishing her good name!"

Natsuki smirked a bit despite the insult because of its clumsy delivery, "Look, she already explained this earlier. It's none of _your_ business. Shizuru can be friends with anyone she wants."

Haruka just glared at the younger girl, "Well I certainly don't have to just sit by and watch as she makes a horrible mistake! I will not be friends with the likes of you, you are bequeath me!"

Natsuki just rolled her eyes, "That's fine with me."

Haruka blinked in surprise at the lack of argument, clearly having expected Natsuki to beg to be her friend. They stared at each other for a bit longer, Haruka trying to intimidate and Natsuki just feeling bored but not wanting to back down. Then they heard a soft voice calling out. "Haruka-chan?"

Letting out a huffing breath Haruka growled at the dark haired girl, "This isn't over." Looking away she called out, "Yeah Yukino I'm over here having a chat with the little servant."

Yukino trotted over to them looking up at the larger girl with a warm affection in her eyes that surprised Natsuki. "Oh Haruka-chan, you know Shizuru-san said to be polite to her. Anyway your mom is here to pick us up." Yukino glanced shyly at Natsuki, "I apologize for Haruka-chan's probably rude behaviour; she's just very protective of Shizuru-san."

Natsuki just shrugged like it didn't matter to her, and it didn't. Much. "Eh, it's fine whatever. Erm… it was nice to meet you too Yukino-san." Then as an afterthought she added, "You two get home safe."

Yukino just nodded shyly at her, grabbing Haruka's arm and pulling her friend back towards the house. Natsuki just stayed where she was, enjoying the quiet of the late winter afternoon after a stressful day with too much social interaction. She walked over to one of the koi ponds, allowing herself to be soothed by their bright colours and quiet swimming. The Slayer watched the fish alone for fifteen minutes before she heard soft footfalls on the path heading in her direction. Looking up she smiled as she saw Shizuru approaching her. _She must have wanted me to hear her, she normally still sneaks up on me._

"What's Natsuki doing out here all alone?" Shizuru questioned as she handed Natsuki one of the purple walkie talkies. "Here, you keep this one."

Natsuki thanked her quietly before answering, "I dunno Shizuru, just needed to be alone. I guess it was hard to be around so many other people. School is going to be so difficult when I start up next year, I don't even think I'll know anyone in my grade."

"Does Natsuki mind my being here?" Shizuru asked softly, at the younger girl's shake of the head she continued, "Anyway, I believe Yukino-san is in your grade."

Natsuki smiled feeling somewhat relieved that she might know someone in her class, "She seems nice."

Shizuru grinned, "Yeah. It's a bit odd how she and Haruka-san are such close friends too isn't it, them being so different." She paused, rust colour eyes studying Natsuki closely, "No one gave you a hard time today did they?"

"Naah, I had fun." She replied, not wanting Shizuru to feel bad about Haruka's rude behaviour. When the older girl just raised her eyebrow at her sceptically at that response she repeated, "I mean it, it was fine. Chie and Aoi seem great, and I had fun kicking Reito's butt at pool."

Shizuru giggled, allowing the distraction since Natsuki really didn't seem upset. "Reito-san was rather impressed by Natsuki's skill at pool."

The Slayer just grinned, "Yeah it was nice to actually have a chance at winning for once instead of being crushed by Midori." Then as if mention of the Watcher summoned her, they both heard the redhead's loud voice calling Natsuki's name. "Over here!" Natsuki yelled as Shizuru just giggled at the way they interacted with each other.

"There you are I thought you were trying to get out of training this evening!" Suddenly noticing that her Slayer wasn't alone the tall woman added, "Oh, hey there Shizuru-chan."

"Good evening Midori-san. I hope you had fun beating my father at pool?"

Midori grinned, "Sure did. Oh, Happy Birthday by the way! I hope you liked what we got you?"

The brunette nodded, "It was a very thoughtful idea, thank you both."

Nodding the redhead turned back to her Slayer, laughing as she punched her in the shoulder hard enough that green eyes glared at her, "Don't glare at me, you're the one hiding out here trying to get out of training tonight." She looked back at Shizuru, "Sorry, we had a great time but this shortie has work to do."

Shizuru just smiled politely, "That is fine Midori-san. You and Natsuki have fun." She hugged Natsuki gently, "Thank you again for coming to my party, it was great to have you there."

Blushing painfully Natsuki struggled to reply, "Erm, it's no big deal Shizuru. I um, had fun."

Midori snorted at her Slayer's awkwardness, "Alright you stop stalling. Have a good evening Shizuru-chan, I'll see you in a couple days for your lesson yeah?"

Shizuru nodded waving at them as they went their separate ways. Natsuki and Midori disappeared into the door of the dojo, neither noticing as Shizuru turned back and headed over to one of the windows, staying hidden in the shadow. The tawny haired girl pulled her heavy black wool coat tight around her against the rapidly cooling winter evening, hardly noticing the time passing, as ever completely entranced by her friend's incredible speed and strength.

Natsuki seemed a blur of motion as she attacked the practice dummy with punches and kicks that were so powerful Shizuru could clearly hear the impacts from them even through the walls. She had been watching for some time when suddenly Natsuki looked over at the window where she was standing, narrowing her eyes and searching the darkness as though she knew she was being watched before amazingly her eyes settled on the exact spot where Shizuru was standing. Shizuru gasped in panic and turned and ran back towards the house.

"What is it Natsuki?" Midori questioned, confused as to why her Slayer had suddenly stopped training to glance behind her.

Natsuki just shook her head, smiling a bit to herself. "Naah, it was nothing, just thought I heard something." With that she turned back to her training before her Watcher could question her further._ I don't mind giving Shizuru a bit of entertainment if watching me doing something boring like this is fun for her. Happy Birthday Shizuru._


	10. Chapter 10

DISCLAIMER: Not Mine.

Tokyo, Japan; April 1994

It was still full dark when Natsuki opened her eyes, unable to sleep any longer even though she didn't feel completely rested. Indeed, she had only managed to fall asleep a few hours earlier, well after midnight. The clock on the small dresser blinked 3:47 in taunting red letters, practically begging her to rip the clearly demonic piece of plastic from the wall and throw it across the room. Instead Natsuki rolled over and burrowed her face into her pillow, letting out a pitiful whine at the sheer amount of nervous energy that she was practically shaking with.

Today she was going back to school. She had managed to keep the denial strong enough that she didn't truly start to freak out until a few days ago, but since then it had only gotten worse. Last night Midori had wanted her to go to bed early so that she would be well rested for the first day of school, but Natsuki had threatened that she would go out slaying alone if Midori wouldn't take her somewhere to work off some steam. The three vampires that they had managed to find hanging outside the local hospital had been more than Natsuki would normally take on at one time, all three looked like they had been gang members in life and it was sheer luck on the young Slayer's part that none of them had any illegal firearms on them.

It had been a hard fight; even with Natsuki fighting all out Midori had been forced to cast some of her rarely used defensive magic to shield them. Even though they had won the fight, Natsuki would still be attending her first day of school with a nasty looking gash on her forearm from the wickedly serrated eight inch knife one of them had been carrying. _Of course it's my knife now heh. And those vamps had to be taken out, camping out openly in front of a hospital like that. _ The wound already showed signs of healing, but even Slayer healing didn't work miracles that fast. She would be wearing long sleeve shirts at school the next few days to cover it up.

Deciding not to waste anymore time trying to force sleep that wouldn't happen without head trauma, Natsuki climbed out of her futon, neatly folding and storing it before getting dressed for what was certain to be a long day. Being quiet to avoid waking Midori she took care of her morning hygiene routine. She double checked that her wound was clean enough but was too lazy to put a bandage on it. _After all there's already scars there so it hardly matters._

When she walked back into her room to get dressed, she was happy that she'd already picked out her clothes last night after a bout of apparently needless worry about waking up late this morning. Slayers have great night vision but as she had learned the last time she got dressed in the dark her night-time colour vision was practically nonexistent. She had heard something about there being a school dress code of some sort even though their school didn't have a uniform like most of them did, but there was no way Natsuki was wearing a freaking skirt. After dressing in black jeans and long-sleeve red Wolfsbane t-shirt, Natsuki put her cross on under her shirt and headed out into the kitchen to grab a quick bowl of cereal and leave a note for her Watcher.

Her maroon backpack that had her notebooks and pens in it, as well as plenty of snacks was sitting on one of the stools at the kitchen counter ready to go. As she hurriedly ate her bowl of sugary cereal in the dark, she paused to open her backpack and pull out a spiral notebook with a picture of Wolverine on the front. Ripping out the first page and replacing it in her bag, she grabbed a pen out of a side pocket and started to write in English.

_Hey Midori,_

_I'm leaving you this note to let you know that I decided to leave for school early. I woke up insanely early, and then couldn't sleep anymore. Figured that I might as well head out to face my fears head on yeah? Anyways you have fun deciding what to do for like eight whole hours today without me alright? Don't do anything I wouldn't do. I mean, unless you have a date with an old man or something, I don't mind if you have fun just don't bring him home cause I need my eyes and I know they'd fall out if I saw that._

_Love,_

_ Natsuki_

Natsuki smirked as she secured the note to the fridge, imagining the look of annoyance on Midori's face when she saw the old man comment. Deciding there was no use in stalling any further Natsuki grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder before going to the door and stomping her boots on. For a moment she contemplated leaving her trusty six inch knife at home, knowing that it was almost certainly against the primary school's rules for students to bring weapons to class but she decided better safe than sorry, doubting they would search her or anything.

After quickly checking the temperature and deciding that she would be fine without her jacket, Natsuki quietly headed outside enjoying the cool dark morning and listening to the few birds that had already started to sing. The Slayer smiled and took a deep breath, allowing the calm of the slowly fading night to take some of her nerves as she headed to the garage to get her mountain bike. The school was about ten miles away, and if she took it at a fairly leisurely Slayer pace it would only take her about thirty minutes to get there. Quickly doing the math in her head she realized she'd get there at 5am and then still have two hours probably before the doors even opened.

Natsuki shrugged to herself, deciding that she would just hang out on the playground near the school until it was time for her to actually be there. She stopped briefly at the 24-hour convenience store along the way to pick up a donut and some coffee, a new addiction of hers that Midori found incredibly amusing, teasing her about how it would stunt her growth. The clerk at the register also looked at her a bit strangely but didn't otherwise comment at seeing such a young girl out alone so early. Natsuki quickly ate the jelly donut before getting back on her bike, she then rode the rest of the way with only one hand on the handlebars, using the other to finish the rest of her coffee.

When she arrived at the still dark, empty school she was not only feeling her nerves come back full force but also a pleasant buzz from the caffeine and sugar. She chained her bike and then decided that she would take a walk around the outside of the building. She had checked out the school once before but she often felt the need to do this, patrol around what she considered to be her territory. Many times at night after Midori and the Fujinos were in bed she would find herself wandering the darkened Fujino estate checking to make sure that everything was in order before she could relax enough to sleep. She had questioned Midori about it once but her Watcher had reassured her that such behaviour was well documented in Watcher diaries as being normal for Slayers.

_So… _She sighed, _This is it. The place where I will be spending way too much time for the next three years. Kumagawa Gakuen._ She walked slowly around the large modern white building. Of course it was a really nice school, seeing as it was located in an area where mostly rich people lived. It was a private academy too, not a public school. The Fujinos were apparently paying her way here; Midori had confided that she couldn't have hoped to afford the tuition.

Hearing that had made Natsuki even more nervous in some ways, as she could not remember if she was even any good at school and she didn't want to disappoint the Fujinos. She was determined to try her best to not disgrace them and had solemnly promised Hirotaka that she would take her studies seriously. The sun was completely up now, bathing the apparently demon-free campus in light. Natsuki tried not to be disappointed that she wouldn't get a good slay in before school started.

Satisfied that the perimeter was secure, Natsuki started to make her way to the playground when she heard a vehicle pulling into the parking lot. She looked over to see a small beige car that was almost as much of a clunker as the one she and Midori used pulling into one of the faculty spots. The person that emerged from the vehicle was a chubby dark skinned man with, of all things, an afro. Natsuki stared for a moment having never seen an afro outside of movies set in the 60s or 70s that she occasionally watched with Midori. _I didn't know anyone wore those anymore._

Noticing her standing on the sidewalk as he was heading to the door the man called out, "Oh hello there, I almost didn't see you! Getting an early start on the day too?" He had a friendly smile and spoke to her like an adult the way Midori did. She liked him immediately.

"Good morning." She replied politely, "It's my first day."

"Well I can understand you wanting to start it off right then. What year are you in? Five?"

Natsuki grinned, pleased that he had assumed she was older, "No, I'm in grade four this year."

He smiled kindly as he reached into his pocket for the keys to unlock the heavy metal side door. "Oh that's great! There are nice teachers for that year too."

"Are you one of them?" Natsuki asked.

He laughed, "No, I'm the librarian here." Looking at her again, his eyes sparked with recognition, "Are you Kuga-san by chance?"

She nodded suspiciously, "Yeah, are there so few new kids that you'd know us all by name?"

He shook his head, eyes dancing with amusement, "No sorry about that. It's just that Fujino-san has special tutoring with me a few days a week since she's at such an advanced reading level for her age. She has spoken of you often, I feel like I know you already."

Natsuki smiled now, "I hope she didn't say anything too bad about me."

He just winked, opening the door. "I have to hurry up and turn off the alarm so that I don't get in trouble with the principal because the cops came. You can come on in and hang out in the cafeteria if you want or you could just wait outside until school starts."

Thinking for a moment, Natsuki followed him inside. "Would it be alright if I hung out in the library?"

He looked surprised, "If you want, though most of the children other than Fujino-san and a few others seem to want to avoid it at all costs."

She grinned, "Well I'm not as good at reading as Shizuru is I'll admit. Oh, what's your name sir?"

"Joseph Yamada." He replied as he disabled the security alarm. "There, hopefully I got that done in time and I still have a job."

Natsuki blinked in surprise at his name, "Are you from America then?"

He nodded, "Sure enough, born and raised in Chicago. I was stationed in Japan when I was in the military and just fell in love with it. I spent all of my extra time learning the language and getting to know the culture so that when I finally got out of the Navy I could stay here."

Natsuki grinned and switched to English, "Well I'm glad you decided to stay, you seem nice."

He blinked in surprise before chuckling a bit, "That's pretty impressive for someone your age. Your teacher is British?"

"Yeah, well her dad was anyway. Her mom was from Japan."

They reached the library which Yamada unlocked, heading in to turn on the lights. It was a fairly good sized library for an elementary school; clearly like the rest of the school no expense had been spared. "If you wanted we've got a decent sized English-language section over there." he said, pointing to the far left wall. "There's plenty of literature at different reading levels. Also if there's a particular book there that we don't have, feel free to ask me and I'll try and get it for you alright Kuga-san?"

She nodded eagerly heading over to the shelves, "Thanks Yamada-sensei! You don't happen to have X-men comics?"

He laughed, "I said I'd get you literature, like books. No superhero comics."

Natsuki chuckled softly to herself, happy that she had at least met someone nice at school already, even if they were another adult instead of someone her age. Looking through the two tall shelves of English-language fiction she chose two books, "The Neverending Story" and "The Phantom Tollbooth" both looked interesting. One of them had what looked like a wolf or something on the cover, and the other one Midori had mentioned in passing as being a good book.

When she took the books over to the checkout counter to borrow them Yamada grinned, "These are great books, you have good taste Kuga-san."

"Thanks." She mumbled, still not quite used to being praised for something involving intellect instead of fighting, even though Midori was always trying to tell her that she was smart.

"Your mom must be really proud of you taking the initiative to learn another language when you're still so young." He smiled in a friendly way, unaware at first of Natsuki's sudden change in demeanour.

Natsuki swallowed hard against the sudden jolt of despair, fighting to keep her tears down. Just two months ago Midori had told her that the Japanese authorities had gotten back to her about the inquiry she'd made into Natsuki's mother's disappearance. A week after Natsuki's kidnapping, someone driving along the coastal highway had seen a body washed up on a nearby beach that was later identified as Kuga Saeko. She had been reported missing by her employer when she didn't show up for work. The adoption process for Midori to take custody of Natsuki apparently hadn't turned this up because the Watcher's Council had basically had their contact create a completely new Kuga Natsuki in the system to speed up the process.

Even though the Slayer had always feared that the worst had happened to her mother all those years ago, hearing that she was really dead had been devastating. She had thrown herself into her Slayer training to try and fight back the grief and feelings of powerless rage mixed with the guilt she felt at not being able to protect her mother. Midori had feared that Natsuki would be too distraught to attend school this year, but the Slayer had managed to pull it together two weeks ago after she and Shizuru had a talk. Shizuru had told her in that sad voice that said she knew too much, that Saeko would have wanted her daughter to keep living and try to be happy. The look in Shizuru's eyes made Natsuki believe that she knew exactly what she was talking about somehow, even though the Slayer wasn't sure how Shizuru could have experienced something like that.

Noticing the girl's silence, Yamada looked up from completing the checkout of the books to see the shine of tears in Natsuki's eyes. "Aah, hey. I'm sorry if I said something thoughtless like that."

Natsuki just shook her head as she took a deep breath and shoved down her emotions so that her voice wouldn't tremble when she spoke, "It's fine, you couldn't have known." She looked down at the books that Yamada slid across the counter to her. "I like to think that she would be proud of me. If she knew how I am now."

Yamada nodded his brown eyes serious as he understood what Natsuki wasn't saying, "I'm sure she knows and is very proud of you."

Natsuki met his eyes, her own green ones containing a bit of anger that startled him until she explained, "I haven't told anyone this… but part of me likes how my life is now better than I liked living with her. I loved her though; I mean she was my mom. I would give anything for her to be living with me now. But I also really love living with Midori and the Fujinos, and I am training to be able to protect people… if I still lived with my mom I'm not sure I'd have this."

Yamada just stood watching her with dark eyes as he rubbed his goatee thoughtfully, "It's tough; losing someone you love like that. Sometimes it can leave us feeling guilty about moving on and enjoying our lives as they are now, like we aren't missing them enough if we're happy. But Kuga-san, I know that nothing would make your mom happier than to know that you are doing well and are happy. That is what she would want for you more than anything."

Natsuki gave him a shaky smile, "Thank you. That's what Shizuru told me too."

Yamada nodded, "Fujino-san is a wise girl."

Natsuki shuffled from foot to foot for a moment, "Anyway… I was gonna head to the cafeteria and see if any of the kids I know already got here early."

"Sure thing Kuga-san. Have a good first day and you come see me if you need anything at all." He gave her a wave before heading over to finish some last minute setup for the new school year.

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Natsuki glanced at the clock on the wall as she entered the cafeteria, 6:47am. Class wasn't supposed to start until 7:30 so she still had some time to kill. She sighed and scanned the cafeteria, looking for someone she recognized who wasn't Reito or Haruka.

At first Natsuki's gaze almost passed over the spiky haired mousey brunette, not recognizing her without her near constant blonde companion. For a moment Natsuki debated the potential risk of running into Haruka if she sat down at the table with Yukino, but she eventually decided to risk it since so far the shy girl was the only person Natsuki knew in her grade. The Slayer sat down on the bench across the table from the brunette who seemed to be absorbed in reading the day's newspaper and jumped at the noise of Natsuki's backpack landing on the table.

"Argh sorry... I didn't mean to startle you."

Yukino looked up over her glasses, a surprised look in her eyes. "Oh hi, Natsuki-san right? It's fine, I just wasn't expecting anyone to sit with me."

Natsuki tilted her head to the side studying the lightly blushing brunette, "Wouldn't you be expecting Haruka-san?"

Yukino shook her head, "Not this early, she normally doesn't show until right before class starts or even a little late some days."

Natsuki chuckled softly, "You don't mind if I sit here right?"

"Oh, no I don't mind at all… it's just normally... people wouldn't is all." Yukino averted her eyes studying the newspaper shyly.

"Well I'll probably be getting here early at least some mornings so if I'm here I'll sit with you. Some mornings I'll probably be as late as Haruka-san though because there are nights when I get to bed really late." Natsuki explained, feeling bad that Yukino didn't seem to have many friends other than Haruka. _Then again I'm not surprised; Haruka would be enough to scare a lot of people off._

Seeing that Yukino had gone back to reading her paper Natsuki decided to let her read in peace for now. _I don't think I've ever even seen someone my age read the paper._ Natsuki grinned indulgently at her quirky new friend and then fished out The Neverending Story from her bag, deciding to get started on reading it before it was time to go to class. The book was a bit difficult for her English reading level, but it was interesting enough that she became engrossed rather quickly and before she knew it the bell had rung indicating that students had to be in their classrooms in five minutes.

Returning her book to her bag she looked back at Yukino, "Which class are you in?"

"D-2." Yukino replied as she put her newspaper away in her khaki colour messenger bag.

Natsuki grinned, "Me too!"

Yukino smiled shyly back at Natsuki, "Did you want to walk to class together?"

Natsuki nodded and they both headed down the hall for their first day of class. Class turned out alright, they had different subjects that rotated out throughout the day: Japanese, math, general science, history and English. Torii Eriko, their teacher was an enthusiastic woman in her late twenties. She seemed to be really excited about the palaeontology unit that they would be doing in their science lessons starting next week once classes really got underway.

After their first three classes of the day, during which Natsuki was amused to learn she spoke English better than their teacher did and horrified to see how many kanji they were learning in Japanese this year, they finally had a break for lunch. Natsuki was somewhat disappointed to learn that they were eating in the classroom. She had hoped that she might be able to see Shizuru, but it seemed that they were going to be with their own class pretty much all day.

Pulling her large Dracula lunchbox out of her bag Natsuki searched around the room for Yukino, finding her sitting on the floor in the corner with a rather skinny boy with chin-length black hair. Deciding there weren't any other kids in their class that she'd rather sit with, Natsuki walked over and sat down on the floor next to Yukino. Yukino and the boy immediately stopped their conversation about some unusual murders that they'd read about in the paper, and stared at Natsuki with shock on their faces.

Natsuki laughed quietly to herself, having thought she'd been over this with Yukino this morning. "It isn't a problem if I sit with you two is it?" They both hastily shook their heads no. Natsuki grinned, "Cool thanks." She held out her hand to the boy who she didn't know, "I'm Natsuki by the way."

The boy stared at her hand in a confused manner before his eyes lit up in understanding and he hesitantly reached out to shake it. "Um... I'm Kenji." His voice was soft and shy, almost like Yukino's was.

Natsuki smiled at him, trying to seem nonthreatening to the clearly shy boy, "Nice to meet you Kenji." Pulling the lid off her lunchbox the Slayer grinned seeing the three roast beef sandwiches, two bags of potato crisps, and several individual packets of mayonnaise stuffed in with barely any room to spare. "Oh wow, thank you Jun-chan!" Natsuki mumbled under her breath to herself, looking up to see that Yukino and Kenji were both staring at her lunch. "What?"

"Um... you're actually going to eat all of that?" Kenji squeaked out.

Yukino giggled, speaking up for the first time, "If I remember correctly Natsuki-san has a very healthy appetite."

Natsuki just grinned as she applied mayo to her first sandwich. "Oh by the way you don't mind if we drop the honorifics between us do you? I feel like we're pretty good friends yeah Yukino?"

The spiky-haired girl blushed, "Thank you Natsuki, I hope we can become even better friends this year."

Natsuki nodded and took a huge bite out of her first sandwich, glancing at the newspaper article that Yukino and Kenji had been discussing before she sat down. Her kanji level still wasn't good enough to be able to understand all of the details in the article, but she could read enough to tell that there had been a series of violent murders at an old warehouse near the Sumida River. "Hey," she asked rudely talking around the food in her mouth, "what's with that news article you guys were discussing before? That sounds pretty scary."

Yukino looked vaguely disgusted by Natsuki's bad manners, but Kenji just nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah it's really sick! They found the bodies of like ten dead guys in that warehouse, and get this their eyes, tongues, hearts and um... their um... you know their _those_ parts had all been removed. The report said that the areas affected showed signs of teeth and claw marks. The police were stumped by it because the marks didn't match any animal on record like someone having a dog attack their victims or something either. Some people in the area were even claiming that they saw some monster!" Kenji's eyes were wide with excitement as he relayed the story, his hands gesturing wildly as he tried to explain the extraordinary story.

Natsuki wondered when this story had broken and if Midori knew about it already or not. "Did they get a description of the monster?"

Yukino scoffed at Natsuki's question. "Why would they bother getting the ramblings from some terrified people who are clearly seeing things instead of focusing on trying to solve the crime?"

The Slayer thought for a moment, trying to come up with an explanation that didn't make her sound stupid or involve telling the other two her secret. "Um... well I was just thinking you know, how sometimes people like to dress up as crazy stuff. It could have been someone in a costume. You know how many crazy anime fans there are out there, maybe one of them finally snapped and thought he actually was his favourite character from whatever show."

The spiky-haired girl snorted with laughter, "Hah, yeah I wouldn't be surprised if that was true. There are some crazy people out there."

Kenji hesitantly spoke up, "Well it says here that it seemed to be shaped like a man. Only he was like seven feet tall and had hooves for feet! And his hands had like two fingers and a thumb each with these thick claws or something on them. Oh! And he had like horns on his head. And a tail." He rambled as he read the article's description of the creature that was sighted.

Yukino made another noise of disbelief, but when Natsuki simply nodded and said, "Thanks Kenji." In a serious tone before starting on her second sandwich, Yukino looked searchingly at her new friend.

"Do you know something Natsuki?" Yukino questioned, wondering why the dark haired girl seemed to take such disturbing news like it was an everyday thing.

Natsuki just shrugged, "No, not yet anyway. That article was pretty vague on the details. It does sound like it could be something serious though; hopefully someone gets on the situation and does something about it." Natsuki groaned inwardly hoping that Midori would say that hunting this demon down could wait a few days. _I knew I should've tried harder to get back to sleep this morning. Still... a demon that size means I'll get a chance to use our big axe. _The Slayer grinned to herself as she opened a bag of the plain flavoured potato crisps. "Either of you want some?" She asked politely, offering the bag to her friends. When they declined she just shrugged, "More for me then."

After lunch they had math, followed by an hour of gym. Natsuki had both looked forward to and dreaded gym class. She was naturally competitive so she was looking forward to any sports they might play, but she still had concerns about being able to hold her physical abilities back enough that she wouldn't stand out. Fortunately they were separating out the boys and girls for gym class and Haruka wasn't in their grade, so Natsuki was hoping that the worst of her temptations to show off had been taken care of. Much to Natsuki's disappointment though, the first day consisted of just running around the track outside. Natsuki simply kept with Yukino's slow pace chatting nonstop, hoping to distract her friend a bit from her obvious dislike of running.

Finally when school was over, she ran into Shizuru coming out of the main building as she was unchaining her bike from the rack. "Hey Shizuru!" She called out enthusiastically when it seemed the tawny haired girl hadn't seen her.

Shizuru turned from the conversation she had been having with Reito and searched for the source of the voice. When she spotted Natsuki her face lit up with a huge grin and she broke out into a run towards her friend. "Natsuki!" She exclaimed, grabbing the younger girl in an enthusiastic hug.

Natsuki looked passed her to see Reito watching them with an amused look on his face before he turned and walked over to the car that had apparently been waiting for him. _Seriously, rich people._ Natsuki chuckled to herself as she returned Shizuru's hug gently, "Hey, how was your first day back?"

The older girl grinned as she stepped back a bit, "It was fine thank you Natsuki. I should be asking Natsuki that question though, how did you like it here?"

"It was pretty good. I met the librarian Yamada-sensei this morning and he seems really nice. Also Yukino and her friend Kenji in my class seem great. I haven't met anyone that I don't like so far unless you count my Japanese textbook."

Shizuru laughed, "Natsuki is so silly. I'm glad that school turned out alright. Yamada-sensei is a nice man, I see him a few times a week during Japanese class so that I can take advanced math instead since I'm so far ahead in that subject."

"Yeah, he told me about that. In fact he already knew my name this morning before I introduced myself. Apparently he'd heard of me from someone." Natsuki teased.

The tawny haired girl blushed lightly at having been caught. "I might have mentioned you once or twice."

"Hey, how are you getting home?"

"Watanabe-san is picking me up from school today. Did Natsuki want to ride with me? We could put the bike up on the luggage rack."

Natsuki contemplated the offer for a moment until she remembered about those probable demon attacks that she'd wanted to talk to Midori about. "If it's really no trouble I'd like to ride with you, I wanted to be able to talk to you more about our first day."

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"Hey Midori!" Natsuki called loudly as she slammed open the door to their house, "Did you see that article in the paper this morning?"

Midori looked up from where she was reading a demonology book on the couch gasping in mock surprise, "You read the paper Natsuki? I think I'm going to have to do a spell to make sure you haven't been replaced by a bodysnatching demon!"

The Slayer just laughed and rolled her eyes at the teasing, "Yeah yeah you got me. It wasn't my paper, it was a friend's. But apparently there were a bunch of bodies found in a warehouse near the river, and there were witnesses who claimed to have seen something that looked like a seven foot tall demon of some sort."

Pointing to the book in her hand Midori replied, "I did actually catch that article this morning, I'm researching to see if I can't find a demon that fits that description right now actually." Looking back to her research she added, "I'm glad to hear that you made some friends on your first day though."

"Yeah, Yukino is in the same class as me, her friend Kenji seems really nice too." Natsuki went over to the fridge to get a soda, "I met the librarian too he was great, they have a whole section of English-language books there. I checked out the Phantom Tollbooth."

"Hah, I love that book. I guess you do listen to me when I ramble on about things. Is the librarian Yamada-sensei? Hirotaka's told me about someone by that name there that tutors Shizuru in her advanced studies."

"Yeah that's the guy." The Slayer grinned as she chugged down the Dr. Pepper, enjoying the slight sting. "You have any leads on this demon yet? I was wondering if you felt we should head out tonight to try and catch it or what..." Natsuki trailed off a bit before swallowing her pride and adding, "...Cuz I didn't get much sleep last night."

Midori gave her Slayer a concerned look, "Are you feeling alright? Just nerves before your big first day?"

Natsuki nodded, "Yeah, no need to worry I'm not sick or anything I was just nervous about going back to school. It turned out to be less of a big deal than I thought, though Japanese looks like it's going to be really hard. The list of kanji for this year seemed so long."

The redhead just shook her head a bit at the girl's whining. "It won't be so bad once you get started, it's not like they're going to make you learn all of them at once."

"Eh, I guess. Anyway everything else sounds pretty fun. Oh! I was wondering if you ever found any fossils or anything when you were doing the archaeology deal? I know it's not the same thing but I was just wondering."

"Yeah actually when I was in Morocco I found a few hand claws from a spinosaurus. I've actually got them in my trunk'o'souvenier junk in my room." Midori looked a bit puzzled, "Why though? For a kid you've never seemed real interested in dinosaurs."

Natsuki laughed, "Yeah probably because I've been fighting _demons_ since I was five. I dunno, dinosaurs are pretty cool I guess just never had much time to think about them. Anyway our teacher is really into science and she seemed so excited about the palaeontology unit that I thought I'd ask. I figure I could get major teacher points if I could bring in a prop for class."

Midori grinned sagely, "Aah so this is a quest to suck up to your teacher." She pretended to look thoughtful for a moment, "That seems like a good cause I can get behind. Remind me when you need to bring them and I'll let you borrow them. Just try not to lose them though cause those are kinda my favourite keepsake from the Morocco assignment."

"I'll guard them with my life." Natsuki promised with mock-seriousness, getting a glare from her Watcher.

Dropping the book on the sofa Midori walked over to stand in front of Natsuki, "Please don't joke about that." Her hazel eyes were stormy with emotion as she spoke, her voice harsh. "I know you're just joking... but not about that ok?" At Natsuki's nod the redhead grinned and poked her Slayer's nose. "Thank you, I'm sorry I take some things so seriously sometimes... I just don't like to think about something bad happening to you." Midori sighed heavily, "And given what I found out about that demon, we don't need to be tempting fate."

Natsuki nodded, "From the description it sounded pretty big, but don't worry Midori I can fight it. Are we going to need to go fight it tonight?"

Midori shrugged uncertainly, "That's the problem, from what I read in my book this demon is some sort of gatekeeper demon. It's gathering those body parts to strengthen itself so it can perform a ritual to open a portal to another dimension. I'll need to double check some of my other resources, but it looks like the demon already has all of the parts it needs. Luckily it won't be able to perform the ritual until Saturday night on the first night of the full moon, so we have four, almost five whole days. Now ideally we'd want to track the demon down before Saturday night to make certain he doesn't get a chance to even start the ritual but he's probably going to be laying low until then."

Natsuki winced, "Any dimension that a demon would want to open a portal to has to be a bad place doesn't it?"

"Eh, yeah I'm afraid so. Luckily though this isn't like an end of the world sized portal or anything, it would just release enough demons into Tokyo that we'd probably have to ask for assistance from the U.S. military stationed here to eradicate all of them. So yeah, lots of people would probably die." Midori sat down on the sofa resting her face in her hands, "The Hellmouth here in Tokyo is supposed to be dormant; I'm not sure what such a dangerous demon is even doing here."

Natsuki sat down on the sofa next to her Watcher and rested her head against the tall woman's shoulder looking up at her affectionately, "Maybe he's a big fan of Godzilla movies?" The Slayer offered, trying to cheer her Watcher up even though she was just as worried about this. What if they couldn't track this demon down in time? _Duran, why did the Powers think that I would be strong enough to handle all of this?_ She wondered if she might get a dream visit from Duran to help out with this. The Uelfur demon spirit had continued to appear in her dreams over the years since the ritual. Sometimes he offered her helpful advice, other times he seemed to just want to talk about things Natsuki didn't understand. Natsuki had taken to keeping a diary next to her futon at night so that she could write down the details from all of the dreams in case one of them proved to be important later.

Midori looked over at her Slayer and offered her a shaky grin, "Heh, you might be right. Maybe we should have you skip school tomorrow and we can go to Akihabara to try and track him down, he might have figured he could blend in with all the nerds there."

Looking into her Watcher's hazel eyes for a moment, Natsuki tried to calm the feeling of panic that again tried to rise to the surface, "Do you think I should be taking off of school so we can take care of this? It sounds really serious."

Midori looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head, "No the only thing we can really do right now is research, and I've already hit up pretty much all of my books here. I'm going to try my contacts in England tomorrow and see if maybe they have something for me. You just do any homework you have, get Jun-chan to make you some dinner and get to bed early tonight alright?"

Natsuki gave her Watcher a hug, "I know you'll be able to figure this thing out. And don't worry, I know I can slay that demon too."

"Thanks kiddo, I'll let you know as soon as I have any more information about this thing." With that Midori went back to her books, double checking to make sure she didn't miss any crucial information while Natsuki went to grab her backpack, planning to see if Shizuru wanted to do homework together, hoping for anything that might take her mind off of what seemed like an impossible deadline.


	11. Chapter 11

DISCLAIMER: NOT MINE

AN: This will likely be the only chapter so long, just couldn't split this one. I also reuploaded a less error-ridden version of chapter 10. Thanks to the person who pointed that out.

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Natsuki glanced at the clock as she got settled in her futon for the night. 9pm. It had been a while since she had gone to bed so early, but she really needed Duran's help tonight. When she'd gotten back from eating dinner and finishing all of her homework earlier that evening, Midori was still pouring over her various texts trying to find any shred of information about the gatekeeper demon. Even after Natsuki had gotten back in from a short training session in the dojo with the heavy axe to try and calm her nerves, Midori hadn't moved. She wanted to say something but, Natsuki felt as though she shouldn't disturb her Watcher from her research even though she looked so tired.

Natsuki breathed out forcefully and tried to clear her mind of all of the worry she had lately. Laying quietly she purposefully slowed her breathing and concentrated on listening to the steady, strong thud of her heart beating in her chest. Breathing in the quiet of the night and breathing out her worries, she steadily relaxed all of her muscles. As she relaxed she thought of the large, comforting form of the spirit whose essence made her _strong._ Duran always seemed to know when she needed to hear from him, he would help Natsuki keep her family safe.

When she opened her eyes again she was dressed in slaying gear and walking down a deserted street, openly carrying a huge black battleaxe, holding it in both hands as she rested it behind her neck on her shoulders. The streets were dark for miles; the only light the harsh dark orange glow coming from the occasional burning car or building. The street was littered with trash and smashed goods from various stores that had been broken into. Glass from broken windows littered the sidewalk, glinting in the firelight. Bits of paper and burning embers from the fires blew down the street in the gentle night breeze. And most disturbingly, dead bodies lined the roads, the smell indicating that they had been dead for some time, simply abandoned to rot where they had fallen. In the distance she could hear the sounds of screeching metal and gunfire.

"Please tell me I'm dreaming." She whispered, but her voice seemed to echo in the oppressive silence of the empty streets. She walked for several blocks toward what seemed to be the centre of the devastation. Many of the buildings here were demolished completely; only rubble some of which still smoked with small fires that attempted to burn what was left. Suddenly she sensed movement behind her and whirled quickly, only to be faced with the large grey and white form of Duran approaching silently at a slow lope from behind. "Argh! I wish you wouldn't sneak up on me." Natsuki exclaimed startled.

Duran just let out his low coughing chuckle as he leaned down to nuzzle her soft hair with his nose. _I didn't sneak up on you, as you turned around before I reached you._

Natsuki rolled her eyes feigning annoyance. She switched her strangely heavy battleaxe to a one handed hold and reached up to gently pet the huge wolf's fur, her hand looking so small against his massive cheek. "Duran?" She asked softly, "This is what happens if I fail isn't it."

The wolf let out a heavy sigh, his breath hot on the Slayer's neck. _Yes. I had to show you this so that I could show you the location of the ritual._

The Slayer breathed in the spicy scent of Duran's fur, trying to clear her nose of the smell of smoke and death, "So this isn't because I'm going to fail?"

Duran shook his large head, but his answer was less than reassuring. _That is not yet written. You always have a chance._

"What's so special about the location the demon needs to use for the ritual?" Natsuki questioned, not really seeing anything of note in this area, just buildings.

_Nearby there is a spot that is a literal door to Hell. A Hellmouth. The Hellmouth here in your city is sleeping and has been for many years, but vast amounts of latent dark magickal energies still linger around its location. The gatekeeper demon is going to use these energies to assist him in gathering the power needed to open the portal._

Natsuki scanned the area around them, desperately looking for any landmark so that she could tell where they were, but with so many buildings in ruin it was difficult. "Where exactly is the Hellmouth located?"

Duran turned and pointed his large muzzle over his left shoulder. _It's down that side street a little ways. I'll walk with you. If this wasn't a dream you wouldn't need me to find it. You would be able to sense its presence much in the same way you can sense stronger vampires and demons._

They walked silently down the empty street, Natsuki tightened her grip on the haft of her battleaxe as she tried not to breath in too deeply the scent from the rotting corpses that they passed every few feet. The destruction was clearly worse here, large stretches of sidewalks were completely darkened with dried blood and chunks of what looked like meat. When they finally reached the location of the Hellmouth Natsuki was both relieved and horrified to find that she indeed recognized the landmark. "That's the hospital that me and Midori fought those huge vamps outside of!"

Duran shook his head sadly; _The Hellmouth itself is likely located in the basement. The ritual requires that he set up his ingredients directly on top of its location. _

"How can I make sure I'm here in time to stop it?" Natsuki asked, her voice trembling.

_The ritual will take place at midnight on the first night of the full moon. If you can make sure to be here well ahead of time, you might be able to prevent him from even being able to set up the ritual properly. You should check the location out as soon as you can while you have plenty of time before the ritual starts._

Natsuki noticed a bright light from a large object falling from the sky. "What the...?" There was a loud crash a few blocks away, and then a large flash of blinding light bright as the sun before the Slayer's vision went suddenly dark.

When Natsuki woke from her dream she was breathing hard and drenched in sweat. Before she even tried to go clean up however, she quickly grabbed her notebook from beside her futon and wrote down all of the details from her dream that she could remember. As always she left out any specific references to Duran. When she finished writing she was still shivering from what she had seen in her dream, despite how much she was sweating. After she used the shower rinse off the sweat, she curled up on the floor in the dark where Midori found her thirty minutes later.

"Natsuki... what's wrong sweetie?" Her Watcher murmured softly kneeling down beside her on the floor and pulling her into a hug.

Natsuki just shrugged, "I had a bad dream about not being able to stop that demon."

The redhead nodded, "Was it a Slayer dream?"

"The ritual needs to take place over the Hellmouth. It's located in the basement of that hospital where we found those vamps last night."

Midori sighed, "Don't worry sweetie we'll get to it in time."

Natsuki just shivered, tears falling silently from her eyes. "There were so many dead. There was blood and death everywhere."

Holding the dark haired girl close Midori tried to think of anything that could make this better. She felt her own throat tighten with emotion at the tears of helplessness and despair tracking down her Slayer's cheeks as she fought not to breakdown herself, trying to stay strong for a girl who already had too many things to worry about. _God she's much too young for this responsibility. Fuck it _I'm_ much too young for this responsibility too._ Midori raised her eyes to the ceiling trying to come up with any answers at all. "Hey, come on let's go in my room and you can get some more rest while I keep researching this alright? I'll wake you up if you look like you're having anymore nightmares."

Natsuki just nodded, for now allowing her Watcher to help her to her feet and leaning against her tall frame, enjoying allowing someone else to be strong for a little while. _But starting tomorrow I'll be ready to be strong again. This thing isn't going to win while I'm still alive._

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Two days later just before lunch, Natsuki was sitting in her classroom restlessly listening to Torii-sensei give their lesson on long division with decimals. Suddenly she had a very strong feeling that she had to be _somewhere else_. It wasn't the general low-level boredom that being still always caused her, but rather that tingle she got when slaying that would sometimes tell her that an enemy was close by even when she hadn't consciously heard or seen it approach. The feeling was telling her she needed to be at the Hellmouth _now._

_Crap, Midori is gonna be so mad at me when she finds out I skipped school. _Natsuki raised her hand and only had to wait a moment before Torii-sensei noticed and called on her, "Um, could I use the restroom?" Her teacher just shrugged and gestured to the hallpass on the windowsill by the door. "Thanks." She grabbed the hallpass on the way out, intending to drop it off just inside the library. She didn't know why, but she felt that she kindof wanted to let Yamada-sensei in on her unusual actions. He seemed like someone who could relate even if she couldn't tell him the truth, what with him being ex-military and all.

Natsuki's heart beat picked up as she kicked open the main door to the school and headed to where her bike was chained on the otherwise empty bike rack. This was the first time she had acted completely solo on a Slayer impulse like this outside of her time as a lab rat for the First District. _Alright, I just need to ride my bike further into town so that I'll be able to take the bus the rest of the way to the hospital._

She breathed a sigh of relief as she managed to pedal her bike out of sight of the school without running into any faculty. She was going to have to ride for about thirty minutes, but luckily she had packed her bus pass in her backpack the morning after Duran had appeared to her in the dream to warn her about the hospital. It was a bus pass that would also allow her to use the bike racks on the front of the bus instead of having to find a place to stash it until she came back, saving her a bit of time and worry for her prized possession. _Not that I'll ever be allowed to take it out again once Midori finds out I did this._

When she showed her pass to the bus driver after stowing her bike he gave her a suspicious look. "I'm going to visit my grandma in the hospital." She lied convincingly, allowing some of the pain she felt about her mother's death into her voice to make the lie seem more authentic. The young man nodded, softly offering his sympathies and hopes that her grandmother recovered soon. "Thank you."

Arriving at the large state hospital, she grabbed her bike down casually with one hand before riding it the short distance over to one of the rusted racks near the general practice entrance. _Alright, now how am I going to manage to get into the basement?_ Thinking for a minute she smiled when she thought she had a plan that might work and headed inside, approaching the front desk shyly, a contrived confused look in her eyes.

"Hey there sweetie, can I help you?" asked the kindly middle aged woman behind the desk. "Are you lost?"

Natsuki shook her head, allowing some tears to come to her eyes as she looked up through long dark lashes at the concerned secretary. "I... my..." She paused as though gathering her composure, taking a shaky breath as she stepped closer to the desk, "I was told that... that my mother died here last night. And I wanted... I just... I needed to see her... her b-body. F-for...c-closure." She allowed the real pain she felt at not being able to say goodbye to her own mother come to the surface again, some real sobs escaping through the faked ones.

As she had planned the woman behind the desk seemed at a loss, but also desperate to help the lost looking little girl. "Well sweetie, that's not our department here, we do just general practice care, but I can call someone over in the department that was caring for your mother, do you know who it was?"

Natsuki shook her head.

The woman looked at the clunky computer monitor on her desk, trying to think of some way to help. "Do you know her name?"

"Watanabe." Natsuki murmured softly, picking the most common name in the area, hoping that odds would be in her favour. If not she would just cry more until she got what she wanted, and then she was planning to just run by all the security and get down into the basement by force if she had to.

"Alright sweetie, I'll get someone from the... from downstairs who can help you alright?"

The Slayer just nodded keeping her eyes down as she reached out with her other senses, trying to see if she could feel the dark energies that Duran had told her about. Even here in the general practice area she could smell the strong scent of bleach and alcohol and the fainter scents of blood and sickness. Under that however she did sense something else. It wasn't a smell or sound or anything but it was like this pull at her stomach that made her feel some of that crushing helplessness she felt in her dream when she saw all of that death. Her heartbeat increased, flooding her muscles with oxygen as the Slayer felt herself readying for a fight. _If there will even be anything for me to fight._

"Excuse me young lady?"

When she heard the hesitant but polite question Natsuki looked up and saw a handsome young man with small wire-rimmed glasses, short spiky blonde highlighted black hair and a scruffy goatee. Even to a child like Natsuki he looked too young to be a doctor. "Hi." She greeted softly, maintaining the pretence of being a scared, lost child.

"I'm Fujikawa Kazuo, a resident med-student here. They told me that I should try to help you out with your problem?" His tone was somewhat cheerful; obviously they hadn't told him exactly what he would be assisting with. Also he wasn't actually a doctor yet, he might not know all of the procedures. _Perfect._

"Yeah... my mother... she died last night. I wanted to... to see her." She looked up at him with the beginnings of tears in her big green eyes, noticing how his own dark ones widened with a bit of panic. _Gotcha._

"Um...well hey. I'll make sure that we can get downstairs so that you can uh... try and say goodbye to her." He hesitated, looking around nervously before taking her hand and leading her to down the hall towards metal double doors. He leaned in closer to her and continued more softly, "What was your name?"

"...Nao."

"Well Nao-chan... here's the thing. I'm new here so I don't know the exact procedure I'm supposed to use with this, but I'll get you downstairs and then we'll see what we can do. If anyone asks... just tell them you're my little sister or something."

Natsuki nodded, "Thank you for helping me."

He shook his head, "Hey, it's ok. I... well I lost my mom when I was young too. I know how important it is to be able to say goodbye."

She squeezed his large hand in hers, "I'm sorry about your mom."

"Thank you... it's been a long time and I still miss her. She's why I decided to become a doctor."

"She's proud of you Fujikawa-sensei." She looked up into his eyes that were clouded over in old pain. "I've lost someone else close to me before, and I was told that it makes the dead happy when their loved ones are happy."

The young man blinked in surprise as they reached the elevator. He punched the down button and turned to her as they waited. "Thank you Nao-chan." The elevator arrived with a ding, the doors opening. "Alright... I can't promise it won't be kind of scary down there, but I know that sometimes it's better to see something scary than to not see anything at all... and not be able to understand what happened." He sighed as he leaned against the wall of the elevator mumbling, "I just hope I don't get kicked out if I get caught."

Natsuki looked up at him sympathetically, just now realizing that he might be risking a lot to help her. "You can just drop me off in there; I'll say I got down here by myself."

He shook his head, "Naah, I won't do that. I think that my attending will understand anyway."

The Slayer sighed guiltily. That was going to make things difficult. She wasn't completely sure that the Hellmouth was going to be in the morgue and if it wasn't she was probably going to have to do something drastic like knock poor Fujikawa unconscious so that she could explore the basement on her own. She shrugged to herself; at least he couldn't get in too much trouble with his boss if he got beat up. Made fun of though probably.

The elevator door dinged open and Fujikawa breathed a loud sigh of relief at finding the hallway empty. "Alright it's left down this hallway and then it's one of the doors on the right. Just stay close to me."

Natsuki nodded, trying to see if she could detect if there was a direction to the uncomfortable pulling sensation she felt. She grinned and then grimaced at the unpleasant feeling of the pulling getting stronger. "We're here." Fujikawa spoke quietly, pushing open one of the heavy metal double doors after he unlocked the heavy chain keeping them closed.

Natsuki raised her eyebrow, "Why's it kept locked with a chain like that?"

The young man shrugged, "You know, I'd always wondered but nobody I've talked to seems to know either. At least no one has given me a good answer. One of the older doctors said something lame like the other lock on the doors kept breaking somehow so they use this chain now instead."

When they stepped into the room Natsuki sighed as she breathed in the all too familiar scent of death. Suddenly the sound of hard claws attempting to scratch through a surface came to her, she had seen enough vampires claw their way out of coffins that were left overnight at a wake site that she would always recognize that desperate sound. "Fujikawa, get back now." She commanded in a harsh voice, shoving him against the wall behind her furthest from the drawer that she heard the scratching coming from. "Stay there. Don't move no matter what you see."

"Huh... argh kid why did you do that?" He grimaced, trying to rise from the floor where he had fallen.

"I said stay _down._" The Slayer growled as she approached the square metal door that was about three feet from the ground, grabbing a heavy bonesaw from one of the tables on her way. Pausing before she opened the door she glared harshly at the student doctor once more, "I mean it. Do not move if you don't want to die."

He just nodded frantically, clearly shocked by the little girl's sudden transformation from a lost and grieving child into this... whatever she was. Satisfied that she had done all she could to keep him out of the fight, she turned and forcefully pulled the door open, the metal drawer containing what used to be a body screeching as it was pulled out at speed. Startled by the sudden movement the naked vampire fell to the ground, but swiftly jumped back to his feet when he saw the young girl standing in front of him. "Wow it must be my lucky day! Breakfast service, man I knew this was a swanky hospital, but I didn't know they offered that kindof thing in the morgue too." The vampire quipped cheerfully, obviously not aware of what he was dealing with.

Natsuki shook her head and hefted her weapon sneering slightly in disgust at the sight of his scrawny naked body, "You're mistaken. I'm not on the nurse staff. I'm security."

The skinny vampire ran a hand through his shoulder length dark hair and gave her a look of amused disbelief, "You? They hire little girls around here?"

The Slayer just laughed, "Not for most stuff no..." She grinned at him, "Just to deal with the vampires." Deciding that she'd had enough of this conversation that was about as enlightening as chatting up Haruka, Natsuki suddenly leaped off the ground and nailed the poor unsuspecting vampire with a hard right boot to his naked genitals. Laughing as he howled and doubled over the Slayer followed up with several hard punches to the side of his neck.

Letting out a growl the vampire straightened up and punched her in the chest, sending her flying back into one of the empty autopsy tables. It tipped over as she collided with it, the metal clashing loudly on the cement floor and various medical instruments flying everywhere. He approached her again without hesitation, intending to try to quickly overpower her with his superior size, but she was ready, raising her improvised weapon and swinging it with force at his left arm, grinning at the jagged cut it opened up on his naked skin.

The Slayer was vaguely aware of both the trembling presence of Fujikawa in the corner and the noise their fight was making. _I need to hurry up and finish this before anyone hears and comes to investigate, this sitch already bad enough. _Luckily this vampire was clearly not a skilled fighter, relying only on his newly heightened vampire strength and instincts. Wasting no time she switched her saw to her left hand and crouched down to draw her knife with her right, quickly stabbing it down into the vampire's bare foot near the ankle. The knife easily cut down into the joint, causing the vampire to again scream out in agony as the small bones in the joint shattered under the force of the Slayer's strike.

She quickly withdrew the knife, twisting it harshly on the way out causing him to cry out again and then mercilessly repeated the manoeuvre on the knee of the other leg as she rose to her feet. The vampire fell to his knees in pain crying out as his ruined joints hit the hard cement floor. Moving quickly so he wouldn't have time to heal, she dropped her knife to the floor and shoved him onto his back on the ground. She ended his agony as she cut through his windpipe and then clean through his neck with her saw. As he exploded into dust she slowly stood, grabbing her bloodied knife from the floor.

For the moment she ignored the presence of Fujikawa, simply walking over to the sink on the other side of the room. She carefully washed the thick blood from her hands and knife before resheathing it in her boot. Finally she turned to see the young man still huddled in a foetal position on the floor. She sighed to herself, _I never know what to say when civilians see me slay._

"Uh... hey, Fujikawa. I'm sorry you had to see that." She offered hesitantly, walking over to him slowly but stopped a metre away when she noticed him flinching fearfully away from her.

"What... what... was that?" He looked up at her through glasses that had fallen off centre on his face, "What are you?"

She winced at the hint of accusation in his voice, she normally just dealt with people who were grateful that she had saved them. "That was one of the many reasons you shouldn't go out after dark alone. It was the reason the doors to the morgue were locked shut with a chain so thick that an elephant would have a hard time breaking it. A vampire. And I'm..." She searched his eyes for a moment, trying to figure out exactly how much she should tell him. Finally she settled on vague. "Well, I kill things like that. I try to kill them before they can hurt anyone." When he still just stared at her not speaking she added, "Also, if you hear that noise like the one coming from the drawer when we came in and you're here alone, don't open it. They're very strong, you could easily get killed."

Fujikawa just blinked in shock for a moment before finally speaking, "You managed to kill it though?"

Realizing that a little demonstration might be more helpful than more explanation, Natsuki grabbed the front of his scrub top and casually lifted him to his feet with one hand. Then she walked back over to where she'd left the still bloody bonesaw. Picking it up she showed it to him and then bent the thick metal in half. "I'm strong too."

"You're not really down here because your mother died are you?" He asked, seeming to pull himself together a bit.

She shook her head, but then feeling a bit guilty she added, "No that's not why I'm here. She did die though, when I was five, so I meant that stuff I said about your mom being proud of you."

"Um... thanks. Then why are you down here? To... gods I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're here to clean out the vampires from our morgue?" He looked like he couldn't quite believe the words coming out of his own mouth as he looked at her hoping for a better explanation.

She had another explanation at least; it just probably wasn't what the young doctor would consider _better._ And certainly not more believable. "Um, no not exactly. The vamp was just a coincidence. Though if you want me to come by on weekends or something to check for them I can do that if it would make you feel better..."

He laughed slightly manically, "Why not just come back at the same time next week?"

"Erm, well actually I'm still supposed to be in school right now. It lets out soon, but yunno I'd never get from there to here that quick."

He just shook his head again, "Whatever I'm not going to ask." Hesitating he asked, "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"No, but I know it's nearby. Like I said, my offer for you to just walk off and leave me down here stands if you helping me with this is going to get you fired or something."

"How am I supposed to just walk away after seeing something like that? You want me to just let you go looking for some other thing alone? Something that might be even more dangerous?" He ran a hand through his spiky hair, "Gods, I probably should do that. I mean I know I'm not a fighter or anything, but it just doesn't seem right."

Natsuki smiled at him, "Thanks. Well if we get caught I'll just pretend that I forced you. Do you need me to hold you at knifepoint?" She questioned helpfully, reaching down to her boot.

"Um no... no. That won't be necessary. We'll just stick with you being a young relative of mine and me giving you the tour. Hopefully I'll just get yelled at for slacking a bit. ...Honestly it wouldn't even be the first time."

With an amused grin the Slayer asked as she opened the door to the morgue heading back out into the hall, "You're a slacker huh? Who's your boss anyway? My guardian and I have been to the emergency room here a couple times for stitches."

"Frequent customers eh? Why does that not surprise me. Anyway her name's Sagisawa Yohko, she's a fairly young doctor... in her thirties or something, but she knows what she's doing. She's really great with emergency medicine, good at thinking on her feet." She recognized the admiration in his voice as he spoke about his mentor; she sounded the same way whenever she talked about Midori. He grabbed the heavy chain from the floor, threading it back through the door handles before applying the heavy lock. It clicked shut, the chains clanging loudly against the door.

Natsuki winced at the noise glancing up and down the hallway and listening carefully, but she still didn't hear anyone else approaching. "Yeah I know Yohko-sensei, she's patched me and Midori up a couple times. She's pretty."

Fujikawa laughed, "Yeah I guess she is. She's a great teacher too, I'm lucky to have gotten my residency here."

"Alright I'm going to need to concentrate a bit so that I can find this thing I'm looking for." As an afterthought she added, "And since you seem trustworthy and Yohko-san knows it already and would definitely know who I was if you described me to her... my name is really Natsuki."

"Thanks for trusting me." He grinned before falling silent, watching curiously as the young girl closed her eyes for a moment, her breathing slowing.

As she concentrated she noticed that the feeling was pulling her further down the hallway but also it was pulling for her to go further underground. "Is there another level to this hospital that's below this one?"

He shook his head, "No there isn't, unless it's some super secret place that they don't tell lowly residents about."

She winced, "I really hope that's not true, it would be a bad thing if there was something like that and a bunch of people on the staff knew about it." Following the feeling down the hall, she stopped when she came to a door to what seemed to be a janitor's closet. She opened the door and grinned when she saw the manhole cover mostly hidden under various shelves of cleaning supplies. "Found it."

"Eh, found what?" Fujikawa asked scratching the back of his neck in confusion as the small girl suddenly started moving a bunch of shelves out of the way. He was still surprised at how she moved the heavy metal shelves as though they weighed nearly nothing, doubting that he could move them with so little effort.

"This." She said, indicating the manhole cover with a booted foot. "I'm pretty sure it's in there." She grimaced, "Of course it is. It's always a freaking sewer. I wish I knew why demons like poop so much."

"Demons...?" He asked, almost surprised that he was surprised. Really it almost made sense after everything else he'd witnessed today.

"Yup. Man, you're alright with me just letting you in on the big secret aren't you? I really hope so cause it's too late to go back now." She laughed a bit, "Don't worry you're handling it pretty well I think. Most people are happy to accept the lamest reasons I give them for why they didn't really see what they just saw."

He grinned proudly as Natsuki crouched down trying to figure out how to pop open the surprisingly rusted cover. "Thanks Natsuki-chan, I bet that's a big compliment coming from you." He winced at the screeching metallic sound as Natsuki pried the heavy metal lid off of the sewer entrance.

Natsuki wrinkled her nose at the faint scent of sewage and mildew, hearing the sound of running water coming up. "Meh... well no use putting it off any longer." She mused aloud before climbing on to the ladder and descending into the dark with all the speed of a monkey climbing out of a tree.

"Oi Natsuki-chan you want me to come down there too?" Fujikawa offered, hoping that she would say no. It was so dark down there... and honestly he didn't know what help he could be.

"Eh? No that's fine. You just stay there and make sure no one puts the lid back alright?" She called up from the dark; he couldn't even see her anymore. He just nodded to himself as he walked over and sat crouched against the wall, worrying about the strange girl that he had already become so attached to. _Wow, I've never met a superhero before._

Letting go of the cold metal of the ladder, Natsuki cautiously stepped into the dark sewer tunnel. Everything was the washed out monochrome of her nightvision, but there was so little light down here that even she could barely make out the cement walls. Near her feet was the line between dark grey and pure black, indicating the edge of the small walkway and the start of whatever dubious liquid was running through these tunnels. Concentrating again on the pull of evil she scanned the walls, eyes widening when she realized the light source that she was seeing by was coming from a rectangular outline in the cement walls. There surrounded by a dark glowing red light was a... door?

Approaching cautiously she listened hard for any sounds coming from the other side of the wall, but all she could hear was the rushing of the dirty underground river and the occasional scurrying of rats. When she reached the wall she ran her hands over the surface of what could only be a door, trying to find a handle or something to open it with, only to jump back slightly when it suddenly opened at her touch, flailing as she nearly fell backwards into the dirty water.

She almost laughed when she saw the underground chamber that was revealed inside. Really, it was the cliché of any evil Shinto shrine she had ever seen in an anime or movie. Lots of dark red traditional decorations, a large black altar with red candles, and the dark red backlit sconces along the walls... and there against the far wall. A blood red torii gate reaching almost to the stone ceiling. There were various obscure kanji lining the side of the torii, most of which Natsuki didn't even know how to read yet, but she did pick out "devil" and "death". _Eh, what else would be written there anyway?_

On the floor in front of it reaching wall to wall there was a sunken scar in the ground, blackened around the edges. In the centre there was a huge crack that seemed inexplicably _decayed_ even though the rock seemed to be just rock, certainly not living. _ And that must be the old Hellmouth._

She looked around the room trying to determine why Duran had insisted she come here _right now_. Was there something in this room, something she could destroy or take or something that would prevent that demon from being able to perform the ritual on Saturday? The ritual... it was for opening a portal. She smacked her forehead forcefully as she realized the obvious answer. _I can't believe Midori thinks I'm smart. Of course it's the torii. Torii, gate, portal. Now... it conveniently looks to be made of rock. Obviously it couldn't just be made of wood or something easily breakable like that._

Natsuki glanced around the room frantically; searching for anything that looked like it might be heavy enough that it could give her the leverage to break the gate. _Come on Duran, you did tell me to come here because there's something I can actually do right? Not just to show me what's going to make me responsible for the deaths of who knows how many people?_ Then suddenly her eyes landed on it, the huge black metal battleaxe from her dream. She had never seen a weapon made from metal that looked like that before, and as she walked over and lifted it feeling an unexpected strain in her arms at its weight, she realized it wasn't metal at all. It was stone of some kind. Resting the haft carefully on the ground, she ran her hand over the stone head of the weapon, feeling how it was almost warm to the touch. There was no hint of any grainy feeling to it like most stone had and even for a piece of rock so large the axe was incredibly heavy._ I can barely lift this thing, who else is supposed to be able to use it?_

She shrugged, deciding to contemplate such things _after_ she had reduced that gate to pebbles. Hefting the huge axe into a hold similar to what she would use on a baseball bat, she strode quickly over to the demonic torii, grinning as she lifted it over her head and smashed it with a satisfying thud down into the first kanji that she still didn't even know the meaning for. _Heh, take that Japanese class. Whatever that one probably isn't on the list I need to learn to graduate anyway._ After about ten more swings to the same leg of the gate, she could feel her arms already starting to burn with fatigue as the axe finally smashed all the way through the red stone. She grinned at the ominous creaking coming from the structure and leapt back just in time to avoid being crushed as the whole thing tipped forward and crashed to the floor, large chunks sliding down into the pit where the old Hellmouth lay sleeping.

Natsuki cheered loudly and hefted the suddenly light axe over her head in victory. _Hell yeah man that was too easy._

Suddenly there was a loud roar coming from the direction of the door leading back into the sewers. _Damn, I should just cut my own stupid head off for thinking that._ The Slayer quickly tried to ready herself, dropping into a defensive stance as the huge demon charged into the underground shrine. It was yelling at her angrily in some demonic language that Natsuki didn't understand, huge globs of frothing spit spewing from his wildly flapping bovine lips to splatter around the room. _I guess he's saying, "Curse you Slayer how dare you interfere with my plans to take over Tokyo and have a large barbeque of human flesh with my demon university buddies!"_

"How about you shut your fat cow mouth and fight?" She growled angrily, still furious at what this creature had been trying to do to the people she lived to protect. The demon glared at her, breathing out heavily and causing the huge bronze ring through its nose to jostle. Then it let out a startled roar as Natsuki charged it instead of waiting to be attacked first. She darted in under its flailing beefy arms, bringing her axe down and opening up a huge blood gushing wound in its side. _Heh... beefy..._ She was trying to hold in the laughter to avoid wasting any breath when it punched her in the stomach with one huge clawed fist, sending her flying backwards and crashing onto the black stone altar.

_That seems to be everyone's favourite move today._ She felt warm blood trickling down her stomach, and glanced down to see some long shallow gouges into the muscle. _And I also think I know who this axe belongs to now._ She rolled off the altar placing it between her and the demon, realizing there was no way that brute strength was going to win this battle even if she was the one armed. _And I definitely can't afford to let him get his hooves on this axe._

Circling the altar she kept one eye on the demon, who while very strong was not especially fast or agile even at a full charge, and she used the other to again frantically search the room looking for anything at all that might help her be the one that got out of this fight alive. There was the stone altar, the crushed stone gate in the pit of the Hellmouth... out the door there was the underground river and the ladder leading up into the hospital. _I'd rather not just run away though... even if he can't perform the ritual this demon is more dangerous than twenty minion vampires._

The sconces on the wall seemed to be lit with oil... _maybe fire_. In one corner of the room there were several large barrels, probably of oil. In another corner there was a canvas bag... she looked closer and noticed the bloodstains. _The parts for the ritual._ She winced at the thought, and then she had an idea. She made a sudden dash for the bag, hearing the demon let out another enraged roar behind her and the heavy thud of his hooves as he charged around to her side of the altar. She waited for a moment right in front of the wall holding the bag like a red cape as he charged, darting out of his way at the last minute and causing him to run face first into the hard cement. He snorted loudly in frustration as she sprinted for the barrels of oil, briefly putting the axe down as she hefted one above her head and threw it with all of her strength in his direction.

The barrel exploded as it smashed into the demon's broad chest, oil dripping down the thick red hair onto the snakeskin loincloth and the cement floor around him. Not waiting for him to recover Natsuki ripped her shirt off over her head, wincing as it tore at her wounds that had already begun to clot over. She grabbed the axe with one hand, adrenaline making it lighter as she again ran to one of the sconces and shoved the shirt in. Ignoring the heat from the burning shirt near her hand for a moment, she charged in close to the demon. She couldn't afford to miss. Finally just a few feet away she threw the shirt at him, not bothering to watch the fire catch, though she heard the whooshing sound and the demon's startled roar as she went back to where she had left the bag of parts next to the barrels.

Grabbing the bag she glanced back at the demon, grinning with satisfaction when she saw him frantically patting at his chest and loincloth to put out the fire, only sending embers to ignite the oil on the floor as well. Wrinkling her nose at the foul scent of the demon's dirty fur burning, she quickly moved to place the bag of slowly decaying body parts on the black stone altar. _I sure hope this does something or I'm just grossing myself out for no reason._

Lifting the axe high above her head once more, she brought it down hard onto the bag, repeating the motion several times and wincing at the splattering of rotting human meat all over its stone surface. She again heard the demon shouting in his strange language, though this time his tone seemed almost panicked instead of purely enraged. The Slayer shifted her glare back to her enemy, he had managed to put out the fire but there was a new look of fear in the demon's small yellow eyes.

And then suddenly, almost without warning the demon began... shrinking. Before her eyes the demon shrunk a foot in height, and his muscles seemed to deflate. In the space of a minute his stomach was hollowed out, his ribs clearly showing. Overall he was now painfully thin, his once tight loincloth now seemed in danger of slipping to the floor, being held up only by his bovine tail. Natsuki wasted no time or pity on the weakened demon and swiftly charged in, hacking into his unguarded chest with the huge axe, smiling in satisfaction as it broke through the sternum. The demon fell back stumbling to its knees coughing blood as it struggled desperately to breathe. Natsuki just stood still for a few moments, taking some satisfaction in the beast's suffering as she remembered her dream and what he was going to do to her city. As it was attempting to struggle back to its hoofed feet, she moved forward casually raising the axe before again bringing it crashing down into the demon's chest, this time crushing the lungs and heart completely with the demons own bones and axe.

"I'm only sorry I can only kill you once." She growled as she raised the axe once more to neatly behead the demon. There was no telling exactly what it could heal from after all. Resting her axe against the altar she completely doused the demon in the other barrels of oil before using some of the remaining pieces of the demon's loincloth to light the body on fire. She watched for a moment to make sure that the fire would really consume most of the body before grabbing the head and taking it with her to chuck into the underground river. _Maybe there's some of those mutant koi in there that would like a snack._

Walking back into the room, she tried to figure out how she could get the heavy axe back up the ladder with her. Sure she was injured and she should probably be more worried about that, but that was an amazing weapon. Chuckling as she glanced down at her shirtless and bloodied torso she wondered how Fujikawa was going to react to the sight of her if he had stayed waiting in the storage room. _Naah, he probably went back to work._

Finally she realized something that might work to get the axe back up the ladder, though she winced because again the idea was pretty gross. Shrugging she walked over to the bag that had held the late demon's _souvenirs_ and removed the thick rope that was used to hold the bag closed. Sniffing the rope she grimaced and walked out into the main sewer to ironically wash it off in the underground river. _I am so lucky that Slayers don't get infections._

Using a special knot that Midori had learned to help her with carrying various finds on her expeditions for the Watcher's Council, Natsuki was able to secure the axe to her only mildly scraped back. _Well, that's everything I needed down here. _ Looking over to see the still burning body of the demon she nodded to herself. _Yep. I did good. And Midori's still probably gonna kill me when she finds out I skipped school._ Natsuki giggled to herself as she pictured the look on her Watcher's face.

She was relieved to find that no one had replaced the manhole cover, and then surprised as she climbed wearily out onto the floor. "Oh hey Fujikawa, you waited!"

His face blushed bright red as he noticed she wasn't wearing a shirt, and he attempted to stammer something out. "Um..just wanted... to make sure you were ok."

Natsuki looked at him suspiciously, "You're not a lolicon are you?"

Dark eyes widened behind his glasses, "Eh? No! I mean, I was just surprised that you're so muscular I guess... For a kid."

Rolling her eyes and not bothering to cover her chest the Slayer questioned, "How would I be so strong if I was built like a wimp?"

He shrugged, "I dunno, the same way that dead guy stood up and started chasing you around the morgue?"

The Slayer thought about that logic for a moment before nodding, "Yeah I guess I can't argue with that. Anyway, I need to get to Yohko's office so that I can use her phone. I might want her to stitch these wounds up too," she indicated her stomach, "but my guardian who I'm making the phone call to might be on her way here to kill me when she finds out where I am so it might not be worth her time."

For a moment Fujikawa just stared at this strange girl, but then he snapped out of it. "Um... there's a laundry room down the hall that probably has a spare scrub top. I'll go get you one and then we'll head upstairs."

Natsuki's eyes widened in fear greater than any she had felt all day when they reached Yohko's office to find the doctor sitting at her desk chatting with Natsuki's Watcher who was leaning casually against the wall. "Midori!" She yelled out, her voice cracking.

Hearing her Slayer's voice Midori ran over to her side, her hazel eyes almost completely gold as she looked the girl over. Finally not seeing any serious injuries she pulled Natsuki into a gentle hug. "Thank God you're safe." She spoke softly, her voice rough. Natsuki looked up at her Watcher's face cautiously, noticing the dark circles under her eyes from too little sleep the last few days.

"I'm sorry I worried you. But I had to go." She tried to explain without going into too many details about being the Slayer in their current audience.

Midori just looked down at her Slayer with serious eyes taking a deep breath to try to calm the urge to yell, knowing it was useless. Finally she spoke, her voice still harsh with her emotions, "I know."

"Check out this cool axe I got though." She said, forcing some cheer into her voice, "I'm surprised I didn't get stopped carrying this thing through the halls on the way here." Glancing over at Yohko she spoke sheepishly, "Hey thank you for keeping Midori company. And please don't fire Fujikawa-sensei, I tricked him into helping me."

The young doctor just shook her head, brushing a strand of wavy shoulder length hair out of her eyes, "I knew it was you from the description the lady at the front desk gave me when she called. I called Midori-san to let her know you were here."

"So I'm not fired?" Fujikawa asked, hesitant to draw his boss's attention to himself.

"No, you're not fired. Natsuki-chan is a special case. I know that she and Midori-san do something very important for this city, so if she needs anything that is in my power to give, I give it without question." Yohko laughed a bit at the identical looks of shock on the faces of Watcher and Slayer, "You can't believe you can come in with that many lame excuses for injuries in the space of a year and not have me start suspecting anything. I happen to be rather smart. I'm a doctor you know." She hesitated for a moment but finally admitted, "And I might have followed you one night and seen you kill a human-like monster that exploded into dust."

Midori narrowed her eyes at the doctor. "You can't let _anyone_ know what you know."

Fujikawa shifted where he stood uncomfortably, before Natsuki finally saved him the trouble of speaking up himself. "Midori, Fujikawa saw me slay too." Hastening to explain before her Watcher could panic she continued, "Hey, I think we can trust him and Yohko-sensei. They're doctors; they care about people's safety. They aren't going to want to expose me when they know it would probably lead to me getting either killed or experimented on by some mad scientists."

Midori glared hard at both doctors, her voice dangerously low as she spoke, "They won't tell anyone unless they want me to hurt them in ways that no one in this building knows how to fix."

Yohko held her hands up in defence as Fujikawa whimpered slightly, "Your secret is safe with us. All I care about is making sure that both of you are safe." She looked searchingly at Natsuki again, eyes narrowing when she noticed the patches of blood on the otherwise clean scrub top. "Speaking of which, it looks like someone is in need of some stitching up."

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Midori pulled her knees in closer to her chest as she sat leaning against the doorframe in the dark, watching her Slayer sleep. She winced at even the thought of the word _watching_. _What good am I to her? That she has to go down into the unknown like that, facing such dangers alone. Being scared, injured... And I can't do a thing to protect her from these things. I can only Watch. _

The Watcher hadn't been angry at her Slayer about skipping school. She knew that if a Slayer had a feeling like that telling her that she _needed_ to be somewhere that it wasn't something she could or should ignore. The only thing she did for Natsuki today was to call the school and tell them it was her fault that the girl had missed the rest of her classes. Some lame excuse about a family emergency that they had believed because the Fujinos were still paying the tuition.

Natsuki hadn't seemed particularly distressed by the day's events. Indeed she had seemed charged; almost giddily happy as she begged to go to McDonald's for burgers on their way out of the hospital after Yohko had stitched her up. The Slayer tried to tone down her exuberance, realizing that her Watcher was worried about her still which almost made Midori feel worse. _The least she deserved after a fight like that was the chance to celebrate._

Yohko and her doctor-in-training more or less knew that Natsuki was a Slayer now though not the word "Slayer". Midori was trying to put that particular development in the positive light that her Slayer did, that it was a good thing to have someone on the staff at the hospital who was in on their secret for the next time either of them ever had injuries that were too difficult to explain. In Watcher training it had been drilled into her that anyone finding out the identity of the Slayer put her at risk. However she also realized that it was the current strategy of the Watcher's Council to make a Slayer train and live in almost complete isolation, something that Midori _knew _in her heart to be horribly cruel.

Tears of helplessness silently fell down her cheeks, Midori made no move to wipe them from her face as she took in the comforting sight of her Slayer breathing. The girl looked so small. _Why does the Slayer have to be a girl of all things?_ Even as she questioned it she knew the answer. The Slayer could not be an army of men, a king or government of any kind. The Slayer had to be an innocent, someone who would fight to protect others with no thought for her own safety. Only someone who was not known to any in power, that could not be controlled by them for selfish reasons could really protect the world from the evil that wanted to rule it once more. The Watcher silently cursed a world that demanded such sacrifice so that the many could go on living their lives, pretending that there weren't such dangers.

"Midori?" The rough voice of her Slayer questioned softly, "Is that you?"

The Watcher sighed to herself, _I can't even let her get a well deserved rest it seems._ "Yeah it's me. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"No... I mean, you didn't make any noise or anything. I don't know why I woke up. I just did, and then I noticed that you were sitting there." Natsuki sat up on her futon so that she could see Midori's face better, her Slayer vision allowing her to see the glint of tears on her Watcher's face. "You couldn't sleep?" She asked softly, not letting on that she had seen Midori's moment of weakness.

Midori shook her head, her long red hair falling loosely around her shoulders. "I could have lost you today." Her voice broke, a hint of the tears falling down her cheeks creeping into her words. "I just needed to sit here for a while so that I would know you were really safe."

The Slayer nodded thinking for a minute, "There's plenty of room if you wanted to sleep in here tonight. I'd probably feel better if you did too, I've still been having nightmares from that vision I had a couple days ago."

"Thanks." Midori replied reluctantly. She realized that it was likely an offer made out of pity, but she just needed to know that her Slayer was alive and safe right now or she'd never sleep tonight.

Midori got settled under the covers, smiling a bit as the little Slayer snuggled up to her. "I worry about you too you know." Natsuki spoke so softly into the sleeve of Midori's pyjamas that she almost couldn't hear. "I worry that I won't be able to keep you safe from something. I already lost my mom. I don't know what I would do if I lost you."

Midori sighed as she gently ran her fingers through the Slayer's soft hair. "I know. It's just... you're so young. I hate the thought of you having to face all of these things alone. I want to be able to help you more."

Natsuki pulled away, holding herself up with an elbow so that she could look into her Watcher's eyes. "Midori..." She spoke softly, trying to explain how she felt. "I'm the Slayer." She shrugged helplessly, trying to convey how that made everything alright. Her heart stopped when Midori let out a pitiful sob at her words.

"I know..." She managed to get out through the tears, swiping at them angrily with her free hand.

Natsuki struggled to find something that she could say, anything to help make this hard truth less painful. "I'm not really facing it alone though." She finally spoke, feeling the truth in the words as she said them. "I don't know how to explain exactly, but knowing that there are people who care about me, and that I care about... Especially you. It makes me feel stronger." She paused as she remembered her time in the solitary cell at the First District, where she was just surviving one day to the next, clinging to the vague and fading hope that maybe someday she would be free and able to go track down her mother, find out what happened to her.

"When I was at the First District, I was just living day to day. The only thing that kept me fighting the demons they made me face almost every day was wanting to find my mother, or maybe find justice for her, I'm not sure which. I think that if I had found out that she was dead while I was still in that cell, I might have just given up and let one of the demons kill me."

She took a painful breath as she looked into her Watcher's still teary eyes before offering her a shaky smile, "Today though, when I was fighting that huge demon that was so much stronger than me... I was stronger than I've ever been. I never thought about giving up or losing. Just knowing that you were out there and worried about me helped me fight harder."

Midori just stared for a moment. It wasn't like her Slayer to say so much or be so open with her feelings. "Thank you Natsuki... I can't even say how much it means to me that I can be of some help to you. You really do mean the world to me, I've never cared about anyone as much as I do you."

Natsuki nodded, "I... I feel the same." She was almost reluctant to say the words, but felt that her Watcher needed to hear them. "I feel awful saying that, because I still miss my mom so much. And I don't know how to define how I feel about you at all, it's just very powerful." The young Slayer lay back down, snuggling close to the tall comforting form of her Watcher and letting out a huge yawn. "Sorry. It was a busy day."

Midori let out a light laugh, "G'night you. Thanks for putting up with my snivelling."

"Anytime."

Soon they were both sound asleep, each comforted by the physical presence of the other alive and safe.


	12. Chapter 12

DISCLAIMER: still not mine.

((AN: Divodog I wanted to reply to your awesome reviews but since your PMs are off I'll just use this small space to say: you're one of the main reasons I'm still writing this thing. Thank you for the support and the enthusiastic and thoughtful reviews. They're really enjoyable to read and get me thinking about things.))

May 1996

They stood on a lightly snow-capped mountain overlooking a huge city. The skyline was fairly impressive, large high-rises soaring above the ground, surrounded by a sea of steel and concrete. Smaller buildings and wide highways fanned out from around the towering giants, stretching as far as the eye could see.

The orange glow on the horizon in the distance almost made it seem as though the sun had just set but it was only the countless lights from the city, the full moon was high overhead. Natsuki vaguely remembered that she had gone into her room to lie down after training, inexplicably tired considering it was only late afternoon. She could see the large form of Duran in her peripheral vision as her eyes scanned the vaguely familiar skyline, though she knew for certain she had never been to this city. "Where are we?" She asked her silent companion.

_The location is unimportant to me, it is one of the countless cities that you humans have been building so large of late. I couldn't be bothered to learn its name. _The pale wolf swished his bushy tail in an agitated fashion. _I don't understand how you humans can stand being so close together all the time._

Natsuki just shrugged, not terribly interested in attempting to explain human behavioural patterns to her friend, especially not ones that she sometimes questioned herself. She and Midori had visited Fujikawa's apartment one night after walking him home from work and she was shocked to find that she could have fit the whole thing in her room back at the Fujinos'. He didn't even have his own toilet; he had to share with his next door neighbour!

She thought back to her increasingly fading memories of the time when she lived alone with her mother, before she was made a Slayer. Her mother had always seemed so worried and sad when she thought Natsuki wasn't looking, and while they always had enough to eat it was only just enough. If her mother had lost her job, or their landlord had raised their rent even a little things could have gone bad rather quickly. "Humans don't always live how they want to." She finally offered in explanation, "Sometimes they even have to live in ways they hate in order to survive."

_But yet they still continue to fight, even though it all seems so hopeless. _Duran let out a deep rumbling grunt, _I suppose even normal humans have something of a warrior's spirit in them. It is admirable._

Natsuki nodded, thinking of her late mother, and of Fujikawa and Yohko-sensei. "It is..." She murmured, before remembering her initial question. "Well we have to be here for a reason don't we? I mean I don't mind just spending time with you, but we don't normally do that."

Her guide gave his snorting chuckle, _I know we don't Natsuki. The Powers don't like me to spend too much time talking to you unless it's Mission related, and already I give you more help and information than they would prefer._

The Slayer turned to look at her guide with concern, "You aren't going to get in trouble with them are you?"

The wolf raised his great shoulders in an approximation of a shrug, _They can't do anything to me. Anyway, I brought you here because apparently this is where the new Chosen One of the Powers has been activated. She's not to stay here, but I thought this place had good scenery even if I wouldn't want to actually live here._

Natsuki raised an eyebrow at this statement, "I thought there was always a Chosen One active."

_There is. But they tell me that this one is going to be special. She's going to change everything._

"They don't think I'm special?" She asked softly, she had been wondering lately how she was different from the "real" Slayer. She'd asked Midori about it a few times, but the question seemed to upset her Watcher, causing her to get all defensive on Natsuki's behalf. Also Midori didn't seem to be able to give her many answers, saying that the records they had been able to recover from the First District were "shockingly lacking".

Duran huffed loudly, turning his head so that he could nuzzle her hair with his soft nose, his breath hot yet comforting against her neck. _I think you're special. I would not have gifted my power to just anyone._

Natsuki looked up into his glowing green eyes, eyes that were the same colour as her own. "Sometimes I wonder why you picked _me_ though."

He chuckled again, _So do all who are ever Chosen... it's not really so simple as that though. I didn't really know ahead of time that this offer would be made to me, it's just that when I saw you... well I just knew that you had the potential to do great good._

"That makes me feel a bit better. So I just need to keep doing my best?"

_That's all you can do. Keep fighting with all that you have for those you care about now, and be constantly on the lookout for new people who are also worth caring about. They need not all be aware of your Calling but anyone who offers you a connection to the world strengthens your will to fight for it. And that keeps everyone safer._

"Thank you Duran."

He just shook his large head, _I wish I could offer you more help than words. So far we've been lucky; your city might be popular with humans, but since its Hellmouth inactive none of the vampires or demons there are organized. None of the more powerful dark forces are aware of your existence yet, but you won't remain so low profile forever. _

_Dark times are coming Natsuki. Not tomorrow, or even next year, but they might be here too soon all the same. Both you and this new Chosen One, if she does as well as the Powers hope, will be tested more than any one individual should be. I can't see the exact shape of things to come, only the dark clouds on the horizon, but there were many humans who still called me by name the last time I saw a storm this bad._

"That is the life of a Slayer though, the constant conflict and fighting. It's like we almost need it to feel alive." Natsuki said, using the same tone she would use to reassure Midori that she accepted the responsibility of her calling.

_But you remember that there are feelings that make you want to stop fighting altogether. Things can happen that will make you want to quit because it seems pointless to continue the fight._

Natsuki thought back to a time two months ago when she had witnessed a young woman, no older than twenty, get her throat ripped out by a vampire. Natsuki had been rounding the corner of the alley, having heard sounds of the struggle... only to be moments too late. By the time she was through with him the vampire was begging to be staked and put out of his misery. She'd gouged his eyes, sawed off his right arm and leg with her trusty knife and had been slowly carving off the fingers of his left hand when Midori had finally stepped in and staked the vamp herself. She had looked at Natsuki with worry and compassion in her eyes and told the Slayer the old line of how she couldn't possibly be everywhere at once. She couldn't save everyone. "I hate it when I can't be there in time to protect someone. It hurts even if that person was a stranger."

_And it hurts even more if that person is someone you care about. The more people you care about, the more chance it will be one of them. But you need to have enough people to care about so that you won't lose everyone._ He gazed into her eyes, _A wolf without a pack doesn't have much reason to keep living... he can survive but he is weak without their support, and he lacks the will to fight as hard without the motivation to protect._

"I don't want to lose anyone else." The Slayer breathed out, feeling the loss of her mother anew.

Duran whimpered softly as he nosed her hair again, _Of course, no one ever wants that. But it is inevitable. Nothing lives forever in this world; even 'immortal' vampires inevitably die eventually. Even gods can be killed, or like a wolf without a pack... sometimes when there are no longer those that worship them, they simply lose the will to keep existing and simply... fade away..._

Wolf and Slayer sat together on the cold snow of the mountain for a long while as they contemplated the inevitability of pain and remembered those they cared about; Duran's only memories of long ago save for the one girl sitting beside him now. In the city below them there was another girl who was confused by the strange new power within her. She too gazed up into a sky that glowed with city lights, as yet unaware of the true weight of the destiny resting squarely on her small shoulders.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Tokyo, Japan: July 1996

Midori and Natsuki stood together in the crowd that had gathered along the bank of the river that runs through Tokyo. They and the others were here for Toro Nagashi, a ceremony held at the end of Obon every year. Nearly everyone present held wood and paper lanterns bearing the names of lost loved ones that would soon be sent floating down the river towards the sea. She and Midori were each holding two lanterns. Midori had one for each of her parents, Natsuki had one for her mother and one for the Slayer that she knew had died earlier this year. She didn't know the name of the Slayer, so she had simply painted the kanji for "chosen samurai" on the thin paper. The sun was setting.

Natsuki did not consider herself to be a particularly devout Buddhist, but she had still spent the previous days remembering her mother and the fallen Slayer as well as those who came before her. She and Midori had hung lanterns outside of their house to welcome the souls of their lost loved ones home. Natsuki had briefly questioned Midori if such lanterns could double as invitations for vampires, but Midori had assured her they would not as they welcomed home the souls of the deceased, and a vampire no longer had the soul of the human whose body they possessed. Midori also couldn't say if the departed souls were really able to return home for a few days, but she had explained that it was just nice to take some time every year to remember them regardless.

Natsuki bowed slightly to the kind old man with smiling eyes as she handed him her lanterns to put on his small wooden boat. He and others were ferrying lanterns out to the centre of the river to start them on their journey. She swallowed down her sadness as she watched the little man slowly rowing away from the bank of the river, wishing that things could stay how they were these past few days. She had enjoyed spending time with her mother again, even if it was just symbolic. She sighed; the rest of the year had to be for the living. It was time to say goodbye again for now. _I love you mom._

Natsuki and Midori stood by the river until after sunset, watching the countless paper lanterns meandering down the river. The soft gold light from their candles reflected off the water, making the river itself seem to glow around them. When it was full dark, the sky lit up and their ears were ringing with the sound of fireworks that marked the end of Obon in Tokyo this year. The sight of the explosions of coloured light in the sky behind the river of tiny glowing lanterns was beautiful. Natsuki spared another moment of silence for the countless Slayers who had fought and died, probably alone, so that they could be having this celebration. Her chest felt full with pride that someone had thought her worthy to be one of them, no matter what the personal cost might be. _I won't forget you. Thank you._

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Fujino Residence: December 1996

It had been a long four years, Natsuki reflected as she stood leaning up against the wall in between Takeda and Kenji watching as Tate and Reito played a game of pool. But even though she had fought so many battles in that time and had almost managed to complete elementary school, she could hardly believe that this was already the fourth birthday party of Shizuru's that she had attended. She could hardly believe that her friend had turned thirteen last week.

She gazed across the room at where Shizuru and the other girls were playing mah-jong. Yukino appeared to be sitting this round out, but Natsuki could tell that she was really helping Haruka. The Slayer grinned as she heard Chie's enthusiastic "Ron!" a moment after Haruka had made her discard, _Well Yukino's trying to help her anyways._

Natsuki sighed longingly, wondering again why she was over here playing pool with the boys when she had been wanting to spend time with Shizuru for weeks. This year Shizuru had begun attending junior high school across town and Natsuki was still stuck at Kumagawa Gakuen. She still had Yukino and Kenji to keep her company, but it just wasn't the same. Lately she'd hardly even been able to spend any time with Shizuru after school to do homework or anything, because Shizuru was always staying after school for some club activity or other and by the time she got home it was dark and Natsuki had to be out slaying. Natsuki had managed to set things up so she did her training with her Watcher in the afternoons so she sometimes had a couple hours to spend with Shizuru in the evenings... still though. It seemed like she hardly saw her friend these days. _And here I am in the same room with her and still not able to even talk to her._

Shizuru had really started to grow into a beautiful young woman this last year too. Natsuki was still getting used to how much she had to look up to meet her friend's eyes as she was almost 5'6" now. Midori of course had been teasing her Slayer relentlessly about how she would forever be the short one, as Natsuki still hadn't cracked 5'. She had a good feeling about the next few years though. She knew she'd never be catching up with her Watcher height wise, but she felt that she'd be able to catch up with Shizuru at least. _After all who's ever heard of a really freaking short Slayer? I mean it's fine if you're eight, but if I'm still so short when I'm twenty I might cry._

She grinned at Shizuru as their eyes met across the room, offering her a small wave. The older girl just gave her a playful wink in return before turning back to her game. Frustrated she finally gave in to the temptation, figuring she didn't care so much about winning their stupid pool tournament anyway even if she hated to let Reito win. "Hey Kenji-kun, I'm gonna go over and hang out with Shizuru for a bit."

Kenji nodded looking like he wished he could follow her, he hated pool. She didn't give him the chance though, not wanting him there to provide an extra distraction from her Shizuru time.

"Hey ladies... and Chie." She greeted playfully as she pulled up a chair next to Shizuru, laughing at the rude gesture Chie sent her way.

"Soo glad you could join us Natsuki-kun." Chie replied sarcastically as the others laughed, even Haruka who even now seemed to resent Natsuki's inclusion in Shizuru's circle of acquaintances. Perhaps even more than she did years ago since Natsuki and Yukino were rather close friends.

"You don't mind if I sit here right Shizuru?" She asked shyly, cursing how the confidence that she felt in most situations still seemed to just fly out the window when it came to Shizuru.

"Natsuki may sit anywhere she likes." Shizuru teased, drawing a tile.

Taking a quick glance at her friend's hand Natsuki tried not to let her eyes bug out and give away the danger to the others. Natsuki wasn't exactly a mah-jong expert or anything but even she recognized the almost complete thirteen orphans. She just sat talking quietly with Yukino about school until she heard the cries of despair from the other three when Shizuru tsumoed two turns later. "Argh why do we even bother?" Haruka exclaimed, bringing a fist down onto the table and making the tiles jump.

Natsuki laughed as she gave her friend a hug, "Because it's only right that the birthday girl win right?"

Chie sighed dramatically, "I might accept your explanation Natsuki-kun... except that Shizuru-san also seems to win almost every other day as well."

Shizuru just shrugged a mysterious smile on her face, though Natsuki was sure she saw a flash of sadness in those crimson eyes, "Luck is luck. It cannot stay either good or bad forever. If we keep playing mine is sure to fail me at some point."

Chie nodded sagely scratching her chin as though deep in thought, "Perhaps that would be so if mah-jong was a game of pure chance, but your skill carries you where luck alone cannot."

"Thank you, Chie-san is most kind."

"Shizuru-san is your family doing anything special for winter break?" Yukino asked diplomatically.

"Maybe for New Years, I don't know that they have any definite plans." Again there was that familiar undercurrent of sadness.

Natsuki leaned in closer to Shizuru, speaking softly so the others could not overhear, "Hey do you think we could spend some time together, alone for a bit? I feel like we hardly see each other... and I wanted to talk about what seems to be always bothering you this time of year." Shizuru actually flinched slightly at the suggestion, but nodded anyway. "Thank you Shizuru, I know this is difficult for you, but I really just want to be there for you. You need to let me in."

"Tonight after dinner." She spoke softly; obviously not ready to talk just yet even though in Natsuki's opinion they had been due to discuss this for years.

"After dinner then." She stood up then and nodded to the others, "Alright, I see Takeda trying to get my attention, guess it's finally my turn again. Thanks for letting me watch Shizuru kick all your asses."

Haruka scoffed loudly, "As far as I'm concerted you're never wanted here."

"Concerned." Yukino corrected automatically before glancing apologetically at Natsuki who just shrugged off the apology, not really caring too much either way about Haruka's rude attitude. She gave Shizuru another hug and waved to the others before she headed back over to the pool table to do some metaphorical ass kicking of her own.

After dinner Natsuki and Shizuru walked upstairs together into the deserted library. The other kids, who this year were all going to be staying over for a sleepover, were all still downstairs. Shizuru settled down in one of the huge comfortable chairs where she had spent many hours reading, Natsuki perched on the large upholstered arm of the chair, sitting with her back partially against the tall back of the chair and her legs dangling off the end.

Natsuki reached over and traced the new necklace around Shizuru's neck, two snakes one gold and one black intertwined in a circular form, their bodies crossing in the middle in an infinity pattern, their heads biting each other's tails. "I hope you like it alright. It will make more sense once you read the books I got you too... I swear the fact that you like snakes so much is like the only nongirly thing about you." Natsuki said, the replica of the Auryn having been one of the things Natsuki got her friend for her birthday, along with Japanese translations of the whole Neverending Story series. Natsuki knew they were kindof kid books, but Shizuru had said she hadn't read them and she wanted to since they were favourites of Natsuki's. She had even gotten Midori to cast a protective blessing on the necklace so that it worked against vampires the same way that a cross would. Not that Shizuru knew about that part, it just made Natsuki feel better.

Shizuru smiled sweetly at her younger friend, "I love it, thank you Natsuki." She gave a shrug, "I really don't know why it is that I like snakes so much. I just feel some strange affinity for them. They are rather mysterious and often dangerous, but there's something beautiful about them to me as well." She trailed off thoughtfully, and then added with a smile, "They also like sunbathing and I can relate to that."

The Slayer nodded, "You just like what you like I guess. I can kindof see what you mean about them I guess." She grinned and reached out and poked her friend's nose playfully, "Plus they're one of the only animals that have as good of a poker face as you do."

The older girl smirked, "This is true too."

Natsuki reached out and ran her fingers through Shizuru's soft wavy hair, "To most people it might be anyway. But Shizuru..." Green eyes searched rust, "I see you. I pay attention, like you told me that time. I can tell when you're just pretending that everything's alright but it's really not." Natsuki sighed, trying to find the right words. It surprised her how good she'd gotten with expressing her feelings over the years, living with Midori had been so helpful in getting her to open up to people again. "You know that I like to protect the people I care about whenever I can. I can tell that whatever's bothering you isn't the kind of thing that my normal strength can really help with... but if you'd let me I'd still like to be here for you."

Shizuru gazed up into her friend's bright green eyes for a little while, and for once didn't attempt to mask her emotions. Natsuki just sat quietly, allowing the older girl to take her time as she played with her friend's hair that these days was almost a golden colour thanks to the highlights that she had professionally put into it. The Slayer thought it was a good look on Shizuru, it was... warm. She always associated with Shizuru with warmth, her rust coloured eyes and how she could always seem to bring a hot blush to Natsuki's face without any effort at all.

They had been sitting together for a while, and Natsuki had almost begun to think that Shizuru still wasn't quite ready to trust her with her pain when finally the older girl spoke, "This time of year... it's hard for my family. A few years or so before you came to live with us my mother was so happy because she had just found out that she was pregnant again. She had really wanted another child, maybe more than just one more. She gave birth to my brother a day after my birthday... I was so excited about meeting him... but..." She stopped looking down at her hands, picking nervously at the light lavender polish on her perfectly manicured nails. She let out a ragged breath before she continued, "He was not well when he was born. The doctors never did figure out exactly what it was, some lung infection or something that he had from the first day. They tried everything, kept him in the hospital on antibiotics and artificial breathing... he had the best medical treatment that money can buy. It just wasn't enough. He died a week later."

She looked up at Natsuki, tears in eyes that had darkened to crimson. Natsuki just held her friend close, she knew that Shizuru allowed herself to cry even less often than she did and knew that her friend needed to allow herself to in order to heal. "My mother, well she's just never been the same. I found out later that she also had a couple of miscarriages a few years before that I didn't know about at the time because I was too young to really understand what was happening. But actually giving birth to him and then having him die anyway even after everything..." Shizuru shook her head sadly, "Now these days it just seems like my mother is barely there. She just goes through the motions. I know she loves me, but it's like she's afraid to let me be too close to her because she doesn't want to lose me too." She just shrugged, "So I guess that's why we never celebrate Christmas. It's hardly a big holiday but plenty of people do celebrate it to have a bit of fun for the end of the year... and anything to just bring a little happiness to our house this time of year seems like it could only be a good thing... but I don't want to push my mother."

Natsuki thought for a moment, trying to think of any way that she could help her friend. "Um... well maybe if you wanted... well maybe you could spend Christmas with me and Midori. Like you could sleep over at our house on Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day we could go to the city and do something." She glanced over to see that Shizuru was staring at her, her red eyes wide in surprise, "I mean... we celebrate it a bit more seriously than most people in our country do, since Midori's dad was a Christian. Midori and I aren't really but we celebrate it so that she can remember him you know? Not too seriously or anything. We usually just watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and then go to a midnight candlelight service at a nearby church on Christmas Eve..."

Shizuru shook her head, "I don't have a problem with doing any of that, I'm sorry if you had that impression. That sounds like it would be nice if you're sure that Midori wouldn't mind me imposing on your time together."

"Don't be silly Shizuru, you're family to us." She caught those crimson eyes with her own, trying to convey her sincerity, "You are always welcome at our house alright? I know it seems like Midori and I are really close, but we both care about you and your family a lot too."

Shizuru gave her a shaky smile, "Thank you. Natsuki is very sweet."

"Well don't tell anyone about that, I do have a reputation to keep up." She gave her friend a playful wink, "Anyway I'll let Midori know about our slight change of plans, I know that she'll be happy to have you over for the holiday. She always loves getting new converts to Charlie Brown too. Next Halloween you'll have to watch The Great Pumpkin with us too."

"Thanks Natsuki. I need to double check with my dad but I'm almost certain he won't have a problem with it." She again dropped sad eyes to study her hands, "I doubt my mother will even notice if I'm here or not."

They stayed there in the library together, Natsuki holding her friend loosely in her arms until Hirotaka came and found them. He seemed thrilled that Natsuki had offered an idea to help cheer his daughter up. It usually took almost all of his energy this time of year to keep his wife from falling into an extreme depression, but he always worried that Shizuru might be suffering as a result. He made a note to himself to thank his good friend Midori if this had been her idea.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Natsuki grinned at her reflection in the mirror, rather pleased that she managed to pull off this look. She had on a plain long sleeved black shirt, having ripped the whole right sleeve off and instead replaced it with a wool armband over her forearm. Over top of that she wore a tight, black leather vest with a black leather armour practice pad over her left shoulder, and fingerless black leather gloves on both hands. On her legs she wore slightly baggy black leather cargo pants. The large silver cross around her neck for once rested outside her clothes completing the outfit.

She was so excited about the new Final Fantasy game being released next month that she had gotten Midori to help her with finding clothes so that she could dress up like the main character. She had been seeing so much promo art of him for what felt like forever. She didn't really care that this outfit was probably going to earn some strange looks when they went to the midnight church service later, and she knew Midori wouldn't either. Her Watcher actually seemed to enjoy doing things that would earn her annoyed looks from stuffy people. Plus Midori actively encouraged her Slayer's interest in the Final Fantasy games claiming she doubted that Natsuki would ever learn Japanese reading well enough to pass without them.

Hearing a soft knock at the front door Natsuki charged out of her room to answer it, nearly trampling over Midori who was walking out of her room. "Oi! Watch where you're running you beast!"

Natsuki just laughed, before skidding to a stop when she reached the door. Running her hand through her hair she took a calming breath before sliding the door open. For a moment she could only stand there silently, staring. There was Shizuru, looking more beautiful than Natsuki had ever seen her in a long dark plum colour velvet dress that elegantly hugged her newly developed curves. Her hair was done up in two long braids down the side of her face and a loose ponytail in the back, the fringe of her bangs hanging down loosely framing her sparkling red eyes. Not only was she beautiful, she had somehow managed to dress almost exactly like the girl from the promos for the new Final Fantasy. Had she done that on purpose? Natsuki dismissed the idea; Shizuru didn't pay attention to things like videogames. Still it was a happy coincidence.

"Um... Shizuru! You look... nice." She immediately blushed hotly, "I mean better than nice, you look really pretty."

Shizuru just gave that mysterious smile of hers, "Thank you Natsuki. May I come in?" She asked raising an eyebrow at her friend's flustered appearance.

"Oh, yeah, uh sure." She hastily stepped aside to allow Shizuru to enter their house.

"Natsuki looks very dashing tonight." Shizuru teased, looking down into her friend's eyes playfully. "I didn't realize they made leather things in your size though."

The Slayer growled a bit, "Hey, there are plenty of short women in this country that probably like to wear leather as much as I do."

Midori walked into the room and headed for the small kitchen, "Hey there Shizuru-chan! I'm really happy you could make it."

Shizuru smiled politely, "Thank you for inviting me Midori-san."

The redhead gave the girl a sharp look, "Shizuru-chan of course I would invite you. You're like a niece or something to me."

Shizuru nodded, the shyness that she rarely displayed these days returned as she gazed down at her feet. "Thank you." She replied softly.

"Yah no problem. Now! I got adventurous and made cookies to aid in our holiday celebration!" Midori proclaimed theatrically, removing a Tupperware container from one of the cabinets.

Natsuki scoffed openly, "You made cookies? Midori you got the kind that come in a roll and all you do is cut it."

"Shut it you! I'll have you know I did actually use those cool cookie cutter things to make them into festive shapes! Also I applied sprinkles and was able to bake them in the oven without burning our house down." She grinned shoving the container across the counter towards the two girls, "And they're not even burnt or anything. That should count as baking right Shizuru-chan?"

"They look great Midori-san." Shizuru replied politely, daintily taking a star shaped one with red sprinkles.

Natsuki just laughed but she grabbed a snowman one with icing anyway, "Yeah they are pretty good I guess."

Midori walked around the counter to poke her Slayer in the stomach, "Whatever you. I know where all the cookies I made last week disappeared to."

The young Slayer grinned cheekily, "Huh? Did you find the cookie monster that was hiding out in our cabinets?" She laughed as Midori smacked her lightly upside the head. "Eh I'm sorry! I'll admit it! You make the best cookies ever Midori-sama!" Shizuru just stood by watching them, smiling shyly at their antics and wishing idly that her family could interact in such a carefree way.

"Alright kids, it's time to get started with the movie! There's ham biscuits and potato salad with a disgusting amount of mayonnaise in it in the fridge too if you want anything else to eat Shizuru-chan."

"Eh I thought it was a perfectly normal amount of mayo!"

"It's perfectly disgusting. The potato and celery are practically floating."

Shizuru tried to keep her expression neutral and polite, but her voice betrayed a bit of her disgust as she replied, "No that's ok Midori-san. I ate dinner before I came over."

The Slayer just shrugged, trying not to be offended, "Whatever, that just means there's more for me."

"Ick whatever, just try not to sit somewhere where I can see you eat that crap." The Watcher teased as she set up the VCR while the two girls got settled on the leather sofa. She hit play and went to go sprawl on her favourite chair a relaxed smile on her face.

The movie didn't have any subtitles, but Shizuru did well enough in English and the plot and dialogue were easy to follow. It was a cute movie and Shizuru could see why Midori was such a big fan. She didn't personally know that much about the holiday of Christmas, but still there was a universal quality to the movie with the way characters seemed to place so much value on having friends who are family. Shizuru supposed that since her family had so much money she really did know for certain that the movie was right; having family was much more important than having pretty things any time of year.

The warmth that she felt sitting here with Natsuki and Midori was almost painful, since she still wasn't sure that she belonged here. Just for these couple of days though she decided to allow herself to believe their assurances that she was family. Even if she felt a little bit like that pitiful Christmas tree in the movie, just something that for this brief time had been brought in from the cold and given the gift of knowing what love feels like.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

The church was a small grey stone building on the outskirts of the city a short drive from the Fujino Estate. It looked almost as though it could belong in the English countryside instead of here in Japan. The small parking lot was packed with cars when they arrived, and they entered the small sanctuary to find it packed as it was every Christmas Eve that they had attended. The worshipers came from many different backgrounds. Some were clearly Westerners here in Japan over the holidays for whatever reason looking for a taste of home, there were also plenty of families where one person had been raised in a more predominately Christian country and some purely Japanese families too.

Shizuru who had never actually been inside a Christian church looked around curiously, taking in the uncomfortable looking wooden benches and raised dais where the preacher and choir would be along with the black grand piano in the corner. And the huge wooden cross that loomed large against the wall at the front of the room. The sanctuary was only dimly lit by candles and the little fairy lights on the evergreen trees that decorated the room tonight. The large floor to ceiling stained glass windows were dark, but she imagined they would be quite beautiful with light streaming through them.

One would think that the stone walls and hard benches would give the place a cold and uninviting atmosphere, but the various families enthusiastically catching up with each other, the kindly old man who had given them their bulletins and candles with a smile and the assorted strangers who randomly wandered over to warmly wish her a Happy Christmas, all helped make the little church anything but cold. Still despite the warmth of the various worshipers, as she, Natsuki and Midori found seats on one of the crowded benches; Shizuru couldn't shake the feeling that she would always be an outsider here.

Natsuki sighed softly as she readied herself to spend the next hour alternately sitting or standing still in this very spot. She was certainly glad that church was something she only had to attend once a year. Midori had teased that there was another holiday in the spring that was even more important to her father's faith, but then admitted that she also found church boring. Christmas was the holiday that held the most sentimental value to her, so this was the one time of year she felt the urge to attend. Natsuki never complained much about attending church because she knew it was important to her Watcher.

The Slayer stood between her Watcher and Shizuru as they sang various traditional seasonal hymns. Some were in English, some had been translated into Japanese, and she thought that one of them might have been in German. She wasn't really paying attention to the details; she was just enjoying standing here between the two people she cared about the most in this sea of strangers. Natsuki allowed her eyes to drift closed as she concentrated on the beautiful, soothing sound of Shizuru singing next to her. The older girl's voice was warm with emotion, perfectly on pitch and clear in tone. The Slayer tried to memorize the peaceful sound of her friend's voice as she allowed her mind to wander, enjoying this rare moment of calm in her life.

After they sang, the congregation sat quietly and listened to the preacher give a sermon about the birth of their Saviour. He was born a mere human baby into near poverty, but he still lived his life helping others and doing many miracles before being killed violently to save humanity from evil and their own sins. Only to be resurrected so that he could bring his followers the message of the chance for eternal life. Natsuki had a tiny smile on her face as she listened to the sermon, wondering what the people in this room would say if they knew that in their midst was a young girl who risked her life every night to keep them safe from evil that most of them didn't imagine in their worst nightmares. She looked to her side to see Midori gazing at her fondly with a similar smile on her face. When she saw Natsuki looking she gave her Slayer a brief hug, and leaned in to murmur "Thank you" in her ear.

After the sermon everyone lit their candles by having a few people share a single light and then spread it throughout the room with everyone sharing the fire with others once they received it. Soon the whole room was bright with the glow of so many tiny candles, the warm light casting everything in gold. Looking to her side her breath caught at the sight of Shizuru who seemed to glow herself, her burnished golden hair and rusty eyes shining with warmth of their own. Shizuru saw her friend looking and gave her a smile, not one of the fake ones that she gave to all of her other friends, but the real one that seemed to light up her whole face. On impulse Natsuki switched her candle to her other hand and reached out to take Shizuru's empty hand in hers, again closing her eyes as everyone sang allowing Shizuru's sweet voice to warm her from within.


	13. Chapter 13

DISCLAIMER: None of these characters are mine :-(

Fujino Residence; September 1998

Natsuki growled with frustration as she tried again to get her uniform's shirt and blazer to lay flat across her chest. It just wasn't working. For the past year and couple months at junior high school she had worn the boy's uniform. She would _not_ wear a freaking sailor fuku no matter how cool Midori thought Sailor Moon was. However for the past couple of months she had been having a problem getting her uniform to fit right. Check that, two problems. _Meh, I really don't see why other girls are so excited about having breasts, they only seem to get in the way. Besides I'm too young for breasts aren't I? I only just turned 13!_

At least their swanky private school had Saturdays off so she didn't actually have to go to school today; she was just trying to get this problem squared away on her day off so that when she went back to school on Monday she would look nice. Suddenly seeing Midori standing behind her in the mirror she let out a most unSlayer-like squeak. "Hey... are you having some problems there Slayer?" Natsuki rolled her eyes because her Watcher was using the tone of some vamp minion or something because she thought it was funny.

"Oi Midori, don't sneak up on me like that!"

Midori just scoffed, "Natsuki, if I can sneak up on you we've got problems."

She let out a frustrated sigh, "I'm distracted."

The redhead nodded sagely, "I can see that Natsuki. Perhaps you would be less... distracted, if you had some... er support." Midori laughed as her Slayer blushed hotly at her observation. _Dang it's been a while since I could get her to react like that. Poor Natsuki._

"Grrr... Midori stop teasing. I don't know what to do, they look bad." The Slayer raised her eyes to look at her Watcher pleadingly. "Make them go away."

"Sorry kiddo, but they're here to stay. Besides, you like breasts." When Natsuki looked like she would protest her Watcher just raised her eyebrow, "You can't really deny that either because you always stare at mine whenever I'm wearing a bathing suit."

"How could anyone not? They're freaking huge." Natsuki complained defensively.

Midori snorted rudely, "Hah, thanks Natsuki. Anyway, here's the deal. I can't help you with your little... err or not so little I guess, problems there cause I promised Hirotaka that I would go with Sakuya to the museum and then to some concert tonight to try and cheer her up a little. She's been down lately and nothing Hirotaka does seems to be helping so I offered to try. For all the good it will probably do."

"Is she going to be okay?" Natsuki asked concerned.

The redhead just shrugged helplessly, "Honestly I don't know. They've been trying her on different medication but..." Midori sighed, "Anyway though, I do think your little problem can help someone today though. Shizuru has been real stressed out lately since her mother took a turn for the worse a while ago, and helping you out might be just the thing to cheer her up."

Natsuki blinked, her eyes widening in panic, "Uh... when you say help me out, what do you mean by that exactly?"

Midori gave her a wicked grin, leaning in close to whisper conspiratorially, "Help you buy some bras."

The Slayer just looked resigned, "Are you sure I shouldn't just cut them off?"

Her Watcher just laughed and gave her a playful wink, "Naah... give them a chance first. You might like them."

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Natsuki fought hard with her urge to leap out of the vehicle and make a run for it as the Fujinos' limousine stopped at a red light on the way to the mall. In fact if she had experienced the life of a normal girl, she might be inclined to think that this was the worst day of her entire life. Natsuki however knew how much worse things could be. The embarrassment of buying her first bras in the presence of her gorgeous older best friend in the grand scheme of things wasn't a big deal at all. _Then why do I still feel like jumping out of this limo even though it's moving now?_

She glanced over at her best friend. Shizuru was currently staring out the tinted window with a thoughtful look on her face. The older girl seemed really down today, it was almost enough to make Natsuki wish that Shizuru would start teasing her about having to finally buy big girl undergarments. Instead though, Shizuru had been unusually quiet since they'd met in the garage to go on this little expedition. She had teased Natsuki lightly about her blush at the mere mention of the word "bra" but then she had promptly returned to being quiet and contemplative. The Slayer was certain that her friend was worrying about her mother and had no idea what she could do to help Shizuru feel better for a little while.

Shizuru had certainly become even more beautiful these last couple of years Natsuki mused as she watched the play of the late afternoon sun over her friend's face. Her face still retained hints of a child's softness, but it had receded a bit in the last year bringing out the elegant sharpness of her facial features that she got from her mother. Her body's curves had filled out even more in all the right places, such that these days whenever Natsuki was sitting next to Shizuru she felt like an awkward child. It was almost like sitting next to Midori instead of her best friend.

The differences weren't so uncomfortable for Natsuki once the two of them got talking and she could stop focusing on how beautiful Shizuru was now, but whenever she first saw her friend these days she was invariably a stuttering idiot for at minimum several minutes. At least Natsuki had finally started catching up to her friend in height, and Shizuru was again only a few inches taller than the Slayer who had finally broke the illusive 5' barrier and was now an amazing 5'3".

Cursing the blush on her cheeks Natsuki looked down at her hands, absently playing with the soft blue cotton of her long sleeve t-shirt. Sitting here and worrying about something silly like her own embarrassment was not going to cheer her friend up. But was Natsuki willing to purposefully try and humiliate herself today to see Shizuru smiling again? She let out a defeated sigh, "Hey Shizuru? Thanks... I mean for agreeing to help me out with this..." The blush intensified, "um... this problem."

Rust colour eyes turned from the window to meet her own, for once not shining with mischief, "It is no problem for me, I want Natsuki to be comfortable with herself."

_Huh? She's still not even teasing me. What's with that?_ Natsuki replied shyly, "Thanks Shizuru. I appreciate you not making fun of me too much too... this is really uncomfortable for me."

Shizuru gave her one of those trademark mysterious smiles but kept her voice serious, "I only like to tease the confident Natsuki. It is no fun to try to embarrass a Natsuki that is already uncomfortable."

"Oh." Natsuki looked away, unable to hold her friend's eyes as she admitted this, "I want to be fun for you though."

A warm hand squeezed Natsuki's shoulder lightly, "So I will just have to find how to boost Natsuki's confidence. It shouldn't be too difficult; she just needs to see what I've noticed recently."

"Eh? What do you mean by that?" The Slayer asked, suddenly suspicious.

Shizuru just laughed, "It will be easier to show Natsuki than to try to explain. We will arrive at the mall soon, Natsuki needs to be patient." Natsuki blushed, but was pleased to notice that the smile stayed on her friend's face until the driver dropped them off for one of Natsuki's first appointments with adulthood.

"EHH!" Natsuki exclaimed digging her heels into the ground to stop her friend, "Shi-Shizuru... We can't go in there!" In front of them was an outlet store for one of the trendier brands of lingerie that was very popular among young women in Japan these days. All Natsuki could see was that there were more giant posters of barely clothed breasts in that store than she had ever seen in her entire life. She hastened to come up with a good reason why they couldn't go in... other than the fear that her head might explode from the embarrassment. "We can't possibly be old enough to go in a store like that."

Shizuru just laughed lightly at her friend's overly dramatic antics but replied gently, "Natsuki, you need a bra. That makes you old enough to go in there." Shizuru actually looked a little bit embarrassed herself, her cheeks lightly pink as she tried to explain, "I just think that it's important that you get some nice ones that fit perfectly your first time. It will help you feel more confident. And I get mine here so I already know which ones are more comfortable. I want Natsuki to have the best..."

Natsuki sighed, knowing that she was defeated already. She was powerless when Shizuru got all sincere and caring like this. "Alright Shizuru." She tried not to look around too much as they entered the store, overwhelmed by the sheer variety of admittedly very pretty underthings. _They are really nice. I bet a lot of these would look great on Shizuru._ She blushed again as her brain helpfully provided her several very nice mental images.

"Alright Natsuki, you're going to go with me into one of those dressing rooms over there alright? Then once I have an idea of what I'm working with, I'll go grab a few for you to try on so we can get an idea of what you like." Shizuru explained in a soothing voice, which reminded Natsuki a bit of the voice that Yohko-sensei used when she was explaining how many stitches she needed or how she was going to set a broken bone or something. It was professional, not teasing in any way and it put Natsuki at ease.

Or at least it put her at ease until she remembered that Shizuru had never seen her without a shirt on. Natsuki was hardly worried about her friend seeing the new breasts now. _She hasn't ever seen my scars._ Shizuru had of course seen the scars on her arms, but Natsuki had always worn one piece bathing suits or more often simply kept her shirt on at the beach. The older girl had never seen the unusual, and nearly impossible to explain away dark scars that marred her torso.

"Shizuru?" She mumbled as they entered the dressing room, clearing her suddenly tight throat, her voice husky as she forced the words out, "There's stuff I haven't told you about me. About my past."

The Slayer wasn't at all surprised when Shizuru just nodded and replied softly, "I know. It's okay Natsuki." Like the older girl always said, she paid attention to things.

Natsuki gathered her courage as Shizuru quietly latched the door shut. She turned around and slowly removed her t-shirt, leaving the tight constricting undershirt that she had been using to try and simply squish her chest flat again. "Just to warn you really quick, it's not pretty." With that she roughly grabbed pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it on the ground, not bothering to try and cover anything since the scars were too large for that anyway. Starting at each collar bone three, centimetre wide scars all charcoal black in colour, on each side slashed down over her small breasts, crossing at her sternum under them before curving under her ribcage to taper off when they reached her sides. They were deep too, gouging down into the flesh a few millimetres, even cutting into the outer edges of her nipples on each breast.

Shizuru gasped loudly and stepped in closer, "Natsuki..." She rasped out a hand hovering hesitantly over the place on her stomach where the scars disappeared. Her normally smooth tones were harsh with emotion as she struggled to find words. Finally she asked the most pressing question in her mind, "Do they... hurt?"

The Slayer shook her head, surprised at the question. Not even Midori had ever asked her that. "No, they don't hurt at all. They hurt right when I first got them obviously, but almost immediately after that they healed up pretty fast and stopped hurting." She replied, happy to be able to reassure her friend.

Natsuki felt her heart pause for a moment when rusty eyes bright with unshed tears looked up from studying the old scars to meet hers. "Natsuki. How? How did you get these?"

She could tell from the tone of her friend's question that Shizuru already suspected something close to the truth but was begging for Natsuki to tell her differently. The truth was just too painful. The Slayer though couldn't lie to her friend. She had already waited too long to let Shizuru in on some of her secret. She wanted to trust the girl with everything, but she feared putting her in danger. Natsuki looked up into her best friend's eyes, "When I was younger... back before I met you or Midori. I was kidnapped from my mother. I'm not sure if you know about that part, that she died because of the people who kidnapped me?"

Shizuru nodded, "I remember you telling me that a few years ago when you found out. I'm so sorry Natsuki."

Natsuki smiled sadly, "It's alright. I mean, I still miss her but I'm happy. I don't know if I ever told you, but you helped me learn to be happy again when I was beating myself up with guilt over her death. Thank you Shizuru."

"So... what happened?" She asked again, voice trembling.

"The people that kidnapped me, the ones that killed my mother? They did experiments on me." She nodded as Shizuru's eyes narrowed in anger, "They were... I guess experimenting to see if they could increase my strength and speed that sort of thing. You already know they succeeded. I know you've seen me training with Midori."

Shizuru blushed lightly when she realized that Natsuki had seen her spying. She ignored the slight embarrassment though and asked, "The people who did this to you. Are they all dead?"

The Slayer's eyes widened, "I don't really know, why?"

The taller girl's eyes darkened to the colour of blood as spoke, her voice hard with anger that made even the Slayer tremble a bit in fear, "If they're not dead I'm going to kill them." Shizuru shook her head, her bangs falling in her eyes as she tried to banish the dark thoughts. She took a step back studying her younger friend. "Well while the scars do look painful, they do nothing to detract from Natsuki's beauty."

Natsuki was surprised when she didn't feel the urge to blush. Apparently the talk about her past had restored her usual self-confidence. The Slayer grinned, deciding to use it while it lasted, "They're not nearly as nice as yours."

Natsuki laughed as Shizuru's cheeks turned bright red. Shizuru quickly recovered however, clearly happy to have confident Natsuki back so that she could tease again. "It pleases me that Natsuki has clearly spent so much time looking at them."

Grinning even as she blushed painfully Natsuki complained good-naturedly, "Hey weren't we here because you're some kind of bra expert who's going to help me with my problems here?"

The older girl nodded, and quickly dropped the teasing and returned to her professional attitude from earlier. "I think I've seen enough that I can guess your size pretty well. They're probably still going to grow too, but I should be able to find you some nice ones so that you'll know what to look for next time." Natsuki resisted the sudden urge to ask Shizuru if hers were still growing too, blushing more at the thought. "Anyway just wait here, I'll try to be quick about this. Maybe Natsuki could take me to the arcade or something later?" Shizuru asked shyly.

Natsuki nodded, green eyes twinkling playfully, "Yeah sure. I'll win you something to thank you for all your help." Last year Midori had taken them to visit an arcade on Christmas, surprised to hear that Shizuru had never been to one. Natsuki had thought that her sophisticated friend would never go for something like that, but Shizuru had turned into an enthusiastic child, thoroughly enjoying the simple pastime. It had been amazing to see her actually just let go and have fun instead of trying so hard to be the perfect, elegant young woman she thought could make her mother happy again.

As promised, Shizuru quickly returned with a variety of bra and panty sets for Natsuki to try on, politely leaving the dressing room to allow her friend some privacy. Natsuki was sceptical at first as she surveyed the various undergarments, but smiled as she noticed that most of them were dark blue or black. _Shizuru knows me so well. _After trying several different sets on, she was looking at her reflection in the mirror in complete surprise. _I look... almost... sexy._ Even the scars didn't seem to detract from the look, trailing down her stomach almost like exotic stripes. She was still muscular but not in an overly bulky way at all, combined with her long dark hair and bright green eyes her muscles gave her the appearance of a feline not a Yakuza thug. _Or maybe a wolf. Don't want to hurt Duran's feelings. _Natsuki was pretty shocked; she'd never really considered herself to be overly feminine, possibly since she spent all of her free time training with weapons and killing things. She still didn't think that she would ever want to wear a dress or anything, except maybe for someone really special. But... she had to admit, Midori was right. She did kindof like them.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

"What is that thing supposed to be anyway?" Natsuki playfully asked her friend as they walked out of the arcade, having decided that they would go to that ice cream place a few blocks away. The sun had set about an hour ago, but as they didn't have school tomorrow they had both wanted to stay out a bit later and have some fun.

"She's a hydra." Shizuru said as though it should be obvious, hugging the strange purple plush toy to her chest. It seemed to have a squid body with large eyes, and multiple snakes extending from it.

"How do you even know it's a girl?" Natsuki asked, wondering where you'd even look on a creature like that.

"She's purple of course, silly Natsuki." Shizuru grinned. "Anyway, I thought she was cute!"

Natsuki just shook her head in amusement as they continued at a leisurely pace down the street. _There definitely isn't another girl like Shizuru in the whole world._ The Slayer's body stiffened as she sensed the presence of a vampire nearby. She automatically reached out a hand to grab one of Shizuru's and pull the other girl closer. Shizuru looked surprised by the action, but seeing the serious look in Natsuki's eyes she didn't offer a tease about it.

_It was too much to ask for a night off wasn't it._ The Slayer thought to herself sarcastically. Still she felt a thrill knowing that having to slay would mean she would finally be forced to tell Shizuru her whole secret. She still worried that Shizuru knowing all the details about her being a Slayer could put her friend at risk... but being able to share the worries that came with being a Slayer with Shizuru had always been a secret wish of Natsuki's.

"Stay close to me Shizuru, there's someone dangerous nearby." Shizuru just nodded as Natsuki searched the sidewalk and streets around them, attempting to locate the vampire. There were still lots of people out this time of night making it easier for a vampire to try to blend in. Then she saw them, a strikingly attractive couple dressed almost entirely in leather. The woman was a thin statuesque blonde who could have easily been a model; the man was a couple inches shorter than her and had a rather scruffy looking appearance for a vampire, long rough looking brown hair and an unshaven face, as though he was a grunge rock star wannabe in life.

Their appearance alone wasn't enough to give them away, but Natsuki recognized the looks on their faces as they leaned against the wall of a liquor store a half block ahead of them. They were hunting. The Slayer let out a low growl, annoyed at how vamps were like roaches. You couldn't possibly kill them all by just stomping on them whenever you saw one. There were always more hiding in the dark somewhere, breeding. Natsuki again searched her surroundings, trying to be certain that these were the only two vampires in the area before speaking softly to Shizuru, "When this starts, I want you to stay back a little ways in the crowd alright? Don't worry about me, I can handle this." Natsuki reached down and pulled a wooden stake from one of the large pockets in her black cargo pants, sliding it up into her shirt sleeve to conceal it as they continued walking closer to the two vampires.

"I trust you Natsuki."

The Slayer nodded as she focused in on the vampires who were now _her_ prey. "Go Shizuru." She growled, letting go of her friend's hand and quickly drawing her trusty knife from her boot as she charged forward. These vamps were obviously not newly risen, as they noticed Natsuki approaching immediately. The female who had been facing away from the Slayer turned in plenty of time to avoid the stake through her back, laughing playfully as she knocked Natsuki's hand aside.

"Is this little shrimp supposed to be a Slayer or something?" The blonde laughed, sparing a glance at her male companion as she easily dodged Natsuki's blows. Passersby on the street inched away from the fight nervously, not sure what to make of the scene before them and too afraid to interfere.

The male laughed too, still leaning against the wall, obviously not impressed with Natsuki's skills. "I dunno Violet. I've seen a couple Slayers but I've never seen one that looked that young before." He then growled when Natsuki knifed the female in the gut while the vampire had both arms up to protect her chest from the stake. Natsuki twisted the serrated blade, causing more dark red blood to flow from the wound. She knew that even though it wasn't a fatal wound for a vampire it would still be extremely painful. She shoved the knife upwards, hoping to be able to force an opening for her stake and growled as the blade caught on the vampire's sternum.

She brought her stake up just in time to catch the male in the chest as he approached her in a rage from the side, obviously intending to destroy her for injuring his companion. _Maybe she was his Sire._ She grinned up at the tall blonde through the particles of dust from her dead companion that were floating between them on the light evening breeze. The Slayer refused to feel any sympathy at the pain in those blue eyes, the vampire had lost her demonic visage when she saw the male get dusted. "Please." The vampire whispered lowering her arms to her sides, ignoring the blood dripping freely from the wound in her stomach. Natsuki nodded, holding blue eyes as she brought up her stake and shoved it hard into the vampire's heart, growling at the pain she felt in her own when she saw the tears in the vampire's eyes before she too exploded into dust.

"NATSUKI!" She turned quickly in the direction of Shizuru's panicked voice and saw her friend being dragged into an alleyway by a third vampire; this one a hugely muscled male with tattoos all over his shirtless chest and arms.

"SHIZURU!" The Slayer charged forward, heedlessly shoving passersby out of the way when they didn't move fast enough, silently begging Duran to make her be fast enough reach her best friend in time. _Don't let me be too late._ Her lungs burned and her heart felt like it would burst out of her chest as she rounded the corner into the alleyway at full speed, pushing faster than she ever had in her life. _He's alone. _She was somewhat relieved, her chances to save Shizuru were much better with only one vampire.

"Put her down NOW or I will torture you for hours before I stake you." Natsuki growled out, her eyes flashing in anger, all of her muscles tensing as she tried to figure out what the vampire would do. She feared to just charge in, because the hold he had Shizuru in would make it easy for him to snap her neck.

"You couldn't hurt me if you wanted to little Slayer. If you're even a Slayer at all." The vamp scoffed, but Natsuki noticed how he held Shizuru closer to him and was awfully careful not to hurt her.

"Vamp if she so much as bleeds I'll be here ripping bits off of you until the rest of you burns when the sun comes up." Shizuru whimpered trying to wiggle out of the vampire's grip, her eyes widening as Natsuki's flashed with an emerald glow as she made the snarled threat. Suddenly the vampire released the bruising grip on her throat, shoving her hard into a nearby brick wall.

Natsuki spared a brief glance to make sure her friend wasn't too badly injured before approaching the vampire, setting up the fight angle so that she could keep an eye on Shizuru. This vampire wasn't as skilled as the other two, but she also wouldn't be able to play on his emotions any more than she already had, and now he was cautious with fear instead of reckless with anger. Still, Natsuki couldn't resist. She breathed in deeply as she stalked closer, "I smell blood." She growled out.

The vampire swallowed forcefully, but to his credit he held his ground, staring down at the Slayer's still lightly glowing eyes as he prepared for the fight of his life. The Slayer startled him by throwing her knife almost faster than he could see. The hard metal sank deeply into a muscular thigh before she launched herself from the ground, kicking a heavy booted foot into the blade's hilt and grinning wickedly at the grating sound of the metal scraping at his bone. The bulky vampire seemed to simply ignore the pain though and remained standing as she punched him hard in the stomach, dodging his large fists before grabbing the hilt of her knife and yanking it back out with her trademark twisting motion. The move caused the thick blade to do more damage on its way out than it had on its way in.

This vamp was tough. He seemed more easily able to completely ignore flesh wounds than a lot of vampires, looking at the gang tattoos she wondered if maybe he had experience with being tortured even before he had been turned. It didn't matter though as he was clearly not much of a fighter, instead he was just a beefy thug that relied on brute strength to intimidate lackeys who also didn't know the first thing about unarmed fighting. Again she thanked the vampire arrogance that meant she'd only encountered two with firearms in all her years as a Slayer, though even at close range like this she was fast enough to avoid shots from just one weapon. She'd never seen a vampire try to use anything too long range, she suspected it was because they hated to waste good blood.

Natsuki grunted as one of the vamp's meaty fists finally connected with her stomach, but she'd seen the blow coming in time to harden her muscles so that it didn't knock the air out of her. Rolling into the punch she managed to open up another deep gash along his side as the punch left it unguarded. Sliding past her hulking opponent as he followed her, she spared another glance at Shizuru. Seeing the frightened look in her wide red eyes Natsuki hurried to try and finish this fight before her friend saw any more than she had to. Natsuki dropped down, avoiding the vampire's clumsy attempts to kick her as she lashed out at his knee on the uninjured leg with her knife. It was a move she used often when dealing with taller opponents to help bring them to the ground. This time he growled as he staggered, his leg was unable to hold his weight even if he did ignore the pain. Natsuki ducked agilely behind him, kicking the back of his broken knee. As the large vamp fell forward she quickly jumped onto his back and drove her stake unerringly into his heart from behind. The Slayer grinned as the vampire exploded into dust, leaving only a few splatters of blood on the concrete to mark his passing.

Natsuki immediately sheathed her weapons, vowing to wash her knife later, and approached the visibly frightened Shizuru. The older girl had a small gash in her forehead that was still bleeding lightly and some bruising on her neck, but otherwise seemed unharmed. "Shizuru." Natsuki murmured softly as she knelt down next to her friend and reached out to brush the now dirty bangs out of the small cut, checking to see if it would need stitches.

Shizuru leaned into the touch despite the drying blood coating Natsuki's fingers, whimpering slightly but not speaking to ask what had just happened, just needing to feel safe. The Slayer reached for Shizuru's purse that was resting on the ground next to her and removed her cell phone, quickly calling home and letting the driver know to come pick them up immediately, giving him the location of the nearby intersection. "Come on Shizuru, let's go wait for Watanabe-san to come pick us up." Shizuru just nodded absently and allowed Natsuki to help her up, leaning on her dark haired friend for support as they slowly made their way to the nearby intersection, grabbing the now slightly dirty stuffed hydra off of the concrete on the way.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Natsuki carefully sat down on the leather couch next to Shizuru, offering her the mug of instant English tea that she had made thanks to knowing how to heat water in the microwave. Midori had offered to help her with this talk but Natsuki just told her that she needed to do this herself. Midori hadn't been offended, simply suggesting that something warm to drink might help calm Shizuru's nerves a bit before going to her room, saying something about reading one of the new light novels she was into these days.

Shizuru took the mug from Natsuki, mumbling "Thank you" but she just held it in her hands as though to warm them instead of drinking any of the hot tea. Natsuki shifted closer to her friend, reaching up to run her fingers through soft golden hair, watching with concerned eyes as Shizuru simply stared into the steam rising from her tea. Trying a move that Duran always used to try to comfort her she leaned closer and gently rubbed her face against the side of Shizuru's neck, "Shizuru." She mumbled softly, trying to get her friend to look at her or something, anything but staring blankly like she had been doing since the vampire attack earlier that evening.

Finally Shizuru seemed to pull herself together a bit, taking one hand off of her mug and reaching for one of Natsuki's, looking over at their interlaced fingers. "I'm sorry Natsuki, I just... I don't really know what to say. I don't know if I really understand what happened." She put her mug down on the coffee table so that she could reach up with her other hand to touch her friend's cheek, "It's just... lately I've been so worried about my mother because she's been really losing touch with us. No matter what I say she doesn't seem to see me anymore." Shizuru shook her head trying to clear her thoughts, "It's just that now, after this afternoon and this evening I realize that I have to be worrying about you too. I mean I always suspected that you did something dangerous in your spare time, but I never imagined..." She trailed off, not sure exactly how she should describe what she saw.

"Shizuru..." Natsuki murmured her friend's name again, reaching up to hold her friend's face in her hands, resting her forehead on hers. "I'm sorry if I cause you to worry." Shizuru's eyes slid closed as she tried to be comforted by her friend's closeness. Natsuki stroked her friend's soft skin gently with her warm calloused hand, wondering again at how beautiful her friend was. _She has such long eyelashes, I never noticed before._ For once she almost wished that she could tell Shizuru that she would be careful from now on, that she wouldn't go slaying ever again if it could spare her friend some worry. Instead she just sighed sadly, knowing that she didn't live in a world that would allow either of them such comforts. "This is what I am Shizuru."

Shizuru's opened her eyes again, looking searchingly at her dark haired friend, blood red irises stormy with emotion. Her voice cracked when she spoke, "What are you my Natsuki?"

For once Natsuki didn't proudly proclaim her destiny, closing her eyes and again nuzzling into her friend's neck, taking comfort in feeling the steady rhythm of Shizuru's pulse against her skin. "Whatever I am, I'm still your friend... right?" She mumbled shyly somewhat fearful of Shizuru's response.

Shizuru just hugged her close but spoke firmly, "Of course I'm Natsuki's friend. Stop being ridiculous and tell me. Natsuki, I need to know."

Natsuki reluctantly sat up, pulling away from the comfort of her friend's embrace. She needed to look Shizuru in the eye when she confessed her secret. The Slayer sighed; she hated causing the ones she loved to worry. "Remember what I told you earlier about those men who kidnapped me and experimented on me?"

Shizuru nodded and growled out, "How could I ever forget? I hate them."

Natsuki blinked at the venom in her friend's voice, not for the first time thinking that Shizuru might have been a frightfully good Slayer. "Well they were trying to make me into this. Their experimentation alone though would not have been enough, if I wasn't deemed good enough I suspect I would have died."

"Good enough for what?"

The Slayer shrugged, it had never been so difficult to explain this, and she had never told anyone the whole story before just bits and pieces. Even Midori didn't really know about Duran. Natsuki desperately wanted to tell Shizuru all of it. "Those monsters tonight, they were vampires."

Shizuru did a double take, "Wait what?"

The Slayer ran a frustrated hand through her long dark hair, "Eh, Midori explains this part better than I do, but I'll give you the basics okay? If you have more questions you can ask her to give you the details later alright?" Shizuru nodded. "Alright this is how she explained it to me. Before there were humans in the world, it was basically a paradise for demons. It was a much harsher world than it is now, humans would never have been able to survive in it. Eventually though, forces more powerful than the demons decided that the Earth should belong to humans, and they mostly cast the demons out of our dimension. One of the demons though managed to merge his essence into a human by feeding off of one and mixing their blood. The human was infected with the demon's soul becoming the first vampire. This first vampire spread the disease by biting and merging blood with other humans, it spread and spread. Now vampires are the most common demons in our reality, though other more pure demons still visit our world on occasion too, many species even living here."

"For almost as long as humans have been the dominant force on the Earth there has been a Slayer. I'm not exactly sure where she came from, but given my own experience I have a pretty good idea. Anyway, the Slayer is 'one girl in all the world' who has been Chosen by the Powers That Be to help fight back the forces of evil. The vampires and demons. She never kills all of them, one person however strong couldn't hope to, but she is supposed to help keep their numbers small enough that they don't overrun things. Whenever one Slayer dies the next Slayer is Chosen, so the world is never left without a defender."

Natsuki paused for a moment, trying to see how Shizuru was taking this information. Shizuru however seemed eager to hear the rest of the story, "How do you fit in to this story? You're the Slayer?"

Natsuki shook her head, "No... not really. I'm just a lab made Slayer. Those people who were experimenting on me... somehow they'd found a version of the original ritual used to make the First Slayer, and they tried it on me using a Uelfur demon to supply the essence used to make a Slayer. It seems to have worked more or less, but there's no telling if another Slayer would be Chosen or not if I died. Also I've never met a normal Slayer to be able to compare if there are any differences in our abilities or anything."

Shizuru just growled, "How could those monsters do this to you?"

The Slayer dropped her eyes from Shizuru's submissively, fearing her reaction but confessing anyway, "I mean... I don't really agree with how they went about it because of what happened to my mom. But... I really like being this way. I like being a Slayer." She looked up through thick eyelashes, apologizing for feelings she felt guilty about for the first time but also couldn't deny.

Stormy crimson eyes softened to warm rust as Shizuru reached out to brush some of Natsuki's thick hair out of her eyes, "Natsuki would not be the girl I care about without everything that makes her Natsuki. Even the parts that scare me." Shizuru sighed sadly, "Just... please try to be careful?"

Natsuki nodded, smiling shyly as she leaned into her friend's touch, "I already promised Midori, but I'll promise you too. Shizuru, I promise to be careful." She again moved in closer, so that her eyes were only inches from Shizuru's rusty ones. "But you have to promise me that you'll be careful too. I can't be everywhere at once and I can't lose you."

Shizuru smiled back, warmed by Natsuki's concern for her. "I promise to be careful. For Natsuki's peace of mind."

"Great! Now, serious talk is out of the way right? We never did get that ice cream, but I think that there's a huge carton of chocolate something or other in the freezer. Did you want to share some with me?" The Slayer asked blushing red when her stomach growled loudly. "I get really hungry after I slay..." she explained shyly as Shizuru giggled at her.

"I'll just have a little bit to keep Natsuki company." She took a sip of her cooled tea, "And I might try to warm this up again in the microwave too."

Natsuki grinned as she helped her friend to her feet, pulling her toward the small kitchen. When she was getting the bowls down from the cabinet she realized that she hadn't told Shizuru about Duran and made a mental note to tell her about him some other time.


	14. Chapter 14

DISCLAIMER: Alas, still not mine.

((Author's Note! I know you guys are seeing the little c next to this story and thinking "wtf it's not finished!"... Or maybe you're not and this is just me being horribly egotistical. ^^ Either way, the story –isn't- over, it's just that the next instalment is going to be in the sequel. Natsuki the Vampire Slayer: Almost Human is the working title; so far I'm planning for that one to follow Natsuki's first year of high school. It will be a bit different from this first story in that we will be focusing a lot more on Natsuki's everyday life instead of just going through the years so fast. I hope that all of my readers will stick around for the next story which I'm personally really excited about. :-D K, enough from me, on with the show!))

Tokyo, Japan: August 1999

Natsuki woke up to a burning pain, biting down hard on her tongue to keep from crying out and alerting Midori. The muscles in her forearms felt like they were being ripped apart. This pain had started a couple days ago on her birthday. The only remotely good thing about this situation was that it was still summer break so she didn't have to try to go to school in this agony. She looked down at her scars and sure enough, the blackness that had started to appear in the scars on her arms was spreading outward from last night. The marks that she'd made on the edges of the black with marker had been passed. She ran her fingers lightly over the marks, noticing that they felt hot compared to the surrounding skin and were raised up when compared to the rest of the scar tissue. _What's happening to me?_

She clenched a fist in frustration, idly watching the cords of muscle under the scars move, wincing at the lingering pain. She had been afraid to tell anyone about the pain that she was feeling. Shizuru would just worry but not be able to do anything to help, and with her mother's depression really taking a turn for the worse this year the last thing Natsuki wanted was to be a burden to her friend. She had wanted to tell Midori or even Duran about her pain, but then she started worrying that it might be a sign that something was wrong with her Slayer powers.

There had probably never been a Slayer who received their powers as young as Natsuki had, and as far as she knew Slayers rarely lived very long after they were first called. She had read some of the Watcher diaries in Midori's collection, and it seemed that a Slayer got to live a few years after her calling if she was lucky. Natsuki had been a Slayer for eight and a half, nearly nine years now. Who knew what might happen to the powers after that long? Plus Natsuki wasn't even a normal Slayer, she was an experiment. Any number of things could have gone wrong during the ritual that weren't showing up until just now.

She sighed as she got up off of her futon, quickly throwing on her favourite midnight blue hoodie and some light blue cotton shorts before folding her futon up and putting it away for the day. She hoped that Midori wouldn't comment on her unusual summer attire again. The Watcher had seemed worried that her Slayer might actually be coming down with an illness when she had claimed that she was just cold two days in a row despite the hot temperatures.

Today she was going into the city to meet up with Yamada-sensei for coffee. This wasn't nearly as sketchy as it sounded, though Natsuki could understand why some might be sceptical. Still they had a strictly platonic and academic-type relationship, and being a Slayer, Natsuki wasn't really too worried about being taken advantage of by a rather out of shape middle-aged man.

They got together outside of school every week or two to discuss an English-language book that Natsuki had read and practice Natsuki's English conversation. She had Midori to practice with too, but Yamada-sensei spoke the American variety, and Natsuki wanted to get to know both. She thought maybe her current fascination with American English might have come from knowing that the current "real" Slayer was American, but she liked to think that she just had a genuine interest in learning.

Natsuki had been rather surprised her sixth year in elementary school to learn that Yamada had suddenly transferred to the exclusive private junior high school that Shizuru was attending. She was happy that the Fujinos' money could make that possible though, because she was quite happy to still have the kind librarian around to talk to at her new school when she needed a different perspective on something. He was currently tutoring Shizuru in economics a couple of days a week, and when Natsuki had continued to show an interest in English reading he had volunteered his time to help her as well.

Checking the clock on her dresser Natsuki decided that she had time to take a cold shower to try and cool the heat on her scars. Even the ones on her chest seemed to be burning, although they still looked the same as they ever did and fortunately were not causing her any pain. Stripping down she noticed idly how much more the remaining white parts of her scars stood out now since her skin had darkened from spending so much time outside in the sun this summer. Hirotaka and Midori had bought her a small cc dirt bike at the beginning of June "just because" and she had been riding it everywhere whenever she had spare time. Yamada-sensei had been a mechanic during his time in the Navy so he had helped her modify the performance in the engine such that the little bike could get up to about 70kph.

She allowed herself to enjoy the soothing cool water for about ten minutes before she got out to finish getting ready. Brushing small, gleaming white teeth she wondered if her canines had always been quite so sharp, grimacing as they made her think of a vamp. _At least I'm tanned these days; signs of sunlight exposure definitely kill the whole vamp look. _Getting dressed in black cargo shorts and a black t-shirt with a fully armoured Samus Aran on the front, Natsuki decided on armbands to cover up her scars today. _Midori won't ask about that, she'll just figure it's some teenager thing she doesn't get._

Natsuki entered the kitchen to see that Midori was already awake and drinking coffee while checking a message board on the internet that she liked to frequent. Earlier this year she had bought the nice new desktop and set it up on the counter next to the seat she preferred to use. "Yo Midori." She greeted, grabbing a bagel and a can of soda out of the fridge. She briefly debated putting mayo on the breakfast bread, but decided that she would just go with the traditional crème cheese to avoid Midori's disgusted teasing.

"Slayer." The redhead greeted playfully, glancing up at the dark haired girl who was growing up so fast. Natsuki had grown another couple inches over the last year, her curves had filled out but at the same time her overall body fat had seemed to decrease giving her muscles more definition. She still had that same small, upturned nose and those big green eyes that made her so adorable though no matter how woman-shaped she was getting, Midori mused.

Natsuki plopped down on the stool next to her Watcher, moving it closer so that she could read the screen over her shoulder. "I still can't believe that there are message boards about demons and apocalypses online. How is it that everyone doesn't know the big secret if anyone with a computer can read about it that easy?"

Midori shrugged, "Well for one not that many people are really involved in the online message board community, at least not for any serious research. That's mostly just for nerds like me." She grinned at her Slayer, "Anyway, I think that most people would just assume that the people on our message boards are just crazy like the people who have message boards about how our world governments are actually controlled by some ancient alien reptilian race."

"What really?" Natsuki laughed.

"Yeaah... though from my correspondence lately with one of my online buddies RedWiccan, it's actually not as crazy as it sounds if you just say that they're demonic reptiles instead of alien ones. Apparently their mayor had made some deal with demonic forces of some kind to turn himself into an immortal snake demon." Midori commented absently as she went back to typing.

Natsuki just shook her head at the craziness of their world. Finishing her bagel she gave her Watcher a quick hug, "Hey, I'm going out to have coffee with Joseph."

The Watcher snorted, "Careful or I'm going to accuse you of having an old man fetish too." She laughed at the look of disgust on her Slayer's face.

"Eew. Don't worry Midori... he's all yours if you're interested." Natsuki grinned as she double checked that her backpack had the copy of Jurassic Park that they had been reading last week before putting on her leather jacket, gloves and boots and heading out. She grinned at the sight of her little dark grey and black Yamaha in the garage, excited as ever to take it out for a ride. She couldn't wait until she was old enough for a license for a full-size sportbike.

Natsuki loved the feeling of flying as she powered her bike down the open roads towards the city, accelerating into the curves and enjoying the rush as her knees almost brushed the blacktop. The streets became crowded as she reached the city, but Natsuki recklessly passed the nearly stopped traffic by riding her bike between lanes, grinning at the annoyed looks on the faces of drivers as she sped by. Soon she was chaining up her trusty little bike to one of the racks designed for light, small cc engines. She left her helmet chained with the bike, and headed at a leisurely pace towards the small coffee shop and bakery where she and Yamada held their meetings.

"Hey Joe." She said playfully as she sat down in the booth across from him, dropping her backpack with a loud thud on the bench next to her.

He rolled his eyes behind the round-framed glasses he was sporting these days, "Good to see you Natsuki."

She grunted in response, grinning rakishly as the attractive young waitress came over to take her order. She asked for an ice coffee with extra espresso and three of the daily special deli sandwiches with extra mayo. The waitress smiled shyly saying that her order would be about ten minutes before continuing on to the next customer. "I read the book."

Yamada nodded, "And, what did you think of it?"

Natsuki shrugged, "It was alright, but I liked the movie better."

He laughed, "And why is that? Plenty of people say they liked the book better."

"Eh, it had its good points too don't get me wrong. But actually seeing that guy getting eaten by a t-rex while he was sitting on the pot was classic. Oh, and having the girl being the one good at computer hacking was cool too. She was cute. I'd like to meet a girl who's that good with computers someday." Natsuki reached out and grabbed one of the sugar packets out of the container on the table and opened it, pouring its contents into her mouth.

Yamada grimaced slightly at the teen's actions, trying to gather his thoughts. "Well both the book and movie have some similar themes. What did you think the message about technology and science was?"

Green eyes stared into the distance as she thought back to her time as a lab rat. "I think it was saying that people should think really carefully about potential consequences before actually testing their theories. I don't really think he was trying to say that science is completely bad or anything either though, just use caution."

Yamada nodded, "And not only that, but there's always going to be something that you didn't think of in planning. They thought that they had plenty of excellent safety measures in place to prevent anything from going wrong, but there were things that they just couldn't have predicted."

Grabbing a napkin she began folding it as she tried to organize the next idea that had jumped out at her while reading the book. "Also something that was interesting was how they were making all of those comparisons between dinosaurs and birds. I thought it was neat how something that is extinct now could still have living descendants that we see every day." As she spoke about this she thought about vampires, maybe they were just shadows of whatever the demon was that had made them. What if they were just pigeons compared to the velociraptors of the past? She shivered.

Yamada spoke thoughtfully, "I'm no scientist myself, but from what I've read recent evidence supports the theory that some dinosaurs evolved into birds. You wouldn't really think it to look at those little sparrows eating crumbs outside, but if you go to the zoo and see some of the big parrots they have there you can really imagine it."

"Hmm. I'll have to get Shizuru to go with me while we still have summer break." She thanked the waitress who brought her coffee and took a gulp of the icy caffeine-rich treat. "I guess the other thing that had me thinking was how the dinosaurs they made weren't exactly the real thing."

Yamada looked puzzled, "What do you mean not the real thing? They seemed to look exactly like dinosaurs."

Natsuki nodded as she placed her rather clumsily made origami frog on the table, "They did look exactly like dinosaurs on the outside. Or maybe they didn't, since we don't really know exactly what they looked like do we? But that's not my point. Remember how they couldn't get enough DNA, so they ended up using frog DNA to fill in the gaps? So even if they looked almost like dinosaurs, they were something else."

Now Yamada's eyes lit up as he remembered that part, "Oh yeah, that was how the dinosaurs found a loophole to reproduce even though they were all supposed to be females. The frog DNA allowed them to change sexes or something like that."

"Yeah. But to me the thing that stuck out was that the scientists couldn't perfectly recreate the past, only an imitation of it." She picked at the frog with her hands, idly noting that her short fingernails were dirty already even though she'd showered only hours earlier. "Maybe they were even better than the dinosaurs from before since they could adapt in ways the original ones couldn't. But maybe there was something wrong with them too, like maybe they wouldn't live as long or something. Like since frogs don't have very long lifespans, maybe they would die of old age much sooner."

Yamada gazed at his mentee curiously, noting the thoughtful, almost sad look in those striking green eyes. He wondered what exactly was causing her to have such real worry. As far as he knew the concepts in Jurassic Park were only relatively implausible science fiction, but there was just something about how seriously Natsuki was taking this that said maybe she knew something. "I'm not really sure Natsuki, like I said I'm really not a scientist myself. I've read that the whole idea of pulling DNA out of mosquitoes like that wouldn't work anyway though."

The teen shook her head, dismissing th0at idea. "I understand that the details might be inaccurate, what I'm questioning is the other bits of DNA. Would they make it not even a dinosaur anymore?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. I mean in all of the important ways they seemed to act like dinosaurs right? They were active at the right time of day, they hunted for food..."

Natsuki grinned at the waitress who brought her sandwiches, making a happy sound as she noted the adequate amount of mayo covering the sliced chicken. "So you think as long as they act basically like dinosaurs then that's what they are? Still though, when it counted they were something else."

Yamada reached over and took the paper frog from the table, "I don't really know. I guess if you really wanted to know the answer to that, you'd have to ask someone who knows a whole lot more about biology than I do."

"Thanks Joe." Natsuki mumbled around a mouthful of her sandwich. Really though, a biologist couldn't exactly answer her question, since it was a mystical ritual that made her into whatever she was. There were likely some similarities between biology and genetic manipulation and demonology and magic rituals, but she didn't know enough about any of it to even understand any answers someone might be able to give her. Maybe though she would see if anyone on Midori's message board might have some answers for her.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

It was early afternoon two days later when Natsuki finally got the opportunity to use the computer in their house without Midori being around. Apparently her Watcher had gone out for lunch and an afternoon movie with Yohko-sensei from the hospital. Natsuki was happy to hear that they were hanging out; her Watcher needed more friends closer to her own age.

Natsuki twiddled her thumbs as she waited for the modem to complete the connection to the internet, idly tapping her feet in time with the little noises it made. It used a second phone line that Hirotaka had set up for them so that they could use the internet however much they wanted without tying up their phone. Apparently he knew all about Natsuki's tendency to stay out late and how Midori loved to do research online but still needed for Natsuki to be able to reach her.

Once the modem made the connection, she quickly minimized the service provider window and opened up Netscape, checking Midori's bookmarks until she found the one for the demonology message board. Natsuki might not have been a total wiz on the computer like Lex from Jurassic Park, but she considered herself to be reasonably literate. She quickly logged out as Midori and set up her own account using her hotmail address, not wanting to try and fake being her Watcher in case anyone asked about this conversation she wanted to have later.

Logging into her hotmail account she grinned seeing the confirmation email already in her box. Ignoring the random spam, she clicked the message and activated the link and now she was set up as OokamiDuran. Navigating the different areas of the message board with some confusion, she finally just decided to make a post in the introduction board as that one was moderated by RedWiccan, Midori's contact who seemed to have some real world experience with demons.

_Hey, I'm new to Hellmouth Online and just thought that I'd introduce myself. I'm OokamiDuran and as some of you guessed I'm from Japan. Anyway I got interested in demons when I ran into a vampire one night! I managed to stake it somehow and get away... I promise I'm not some techsavvy vamp who's infiltrated your boards as a way to pass the daylight hours. -.o_

_Anyway, I had a couple... I guess theoretical questions about demons and magic. Say someone had found a really old ritual but it had parts missing, so they just filled the missing bits with their best guess. If the ritual still worked could there be problems associated with that? Don't look at me like that I'm not planning on actually doing this, I was just wondering because I watched Jurassic Park this week and it made me wonder if maybe there were parallels to be found in Magic._

_Thanks!_

_~OokamiDuran 3_

_Oh, if anyone has ICQ and wants to get in touch with me that way I'm 57-670-346. If you message me wanting to cyberz you will be ignored. Thx._

Natsuki sat down to wait, starting up a game of Minesweeper to help pass the time despite knowing there was no way that she would beat Midori's record times. About ten minutes later, ICQ blinked, letting her know she had a new message. _Wow that was fast._

RedWiccan(35-593-730): Hey there! You're the one that posted the question on my message board right?

OokamiDuran(57-670-346): Ya that was me. Thanks for getting back to me so fast. That's cool that you have ICQ.

RedWiccan: Yah well, it was made by my people ya know? I figure I should represent. ;-)

OokamiDuran: ...wiccans?

RedWiccan: The Jews. :-)

OokamiDuran: Huh, I didn't know that... Anyway thanks again for contacting me, what with it being Friday and all. Dunno how late it is where you are...?

RedWiccan: Eh, hey no problem. I was gonna go out dancing with my friends tonight but that didn't pan out. My boyfriend's kindof out of town anyways so I just decided to stay in. And look! Here I am helping you! ...so it all worked out right?

OokamiDuran: lol, I guess. Sorry about your bf being out of town though.

RedWiccan: It's okay, he plays guitar in a band so he travels a lot. I don't mind as long as he's happy. Anyway to your question, what kind of ritual are we talking about exactly?

OokamiDuran: ...Would it matter? Just theoretically something so old that there wasn't really a good complete record of it.

RedWiccan: Well no not really, I was just asking because what the ritual was for might help me with thinking of what potential effects could happen from altering the spell. I like to think of Magic as being similar to a computer program you know? With lines of code? So if you know what the program is supposed to do, even if there are lines missing it's easy enough to see what you need to replace it with to get the desired functionality.

OokamiDuran: Huh, I've never heard someone describe magic that way before.

RedWiccan: Oh, yeah well... I'm kindof a computer wiz, so I sometimes say nerdy stuff like that...

OokamiDuran: Is that right? I was just talking with someone the other day about how girls who are awesome with computers are kindof hot. ^_-

RedWiccan: *blush* thanks. But anyway, I guess the problem that you could run across is that sometimes the new lines of code could interact with the old ones in unpredictable ways, like incompatibilities or something. Also, say the old code was written for an old Operating System or something that doesn't exist anymore. You might have to make modifications to the original code too for it to work right. With a magic ritual that could mean it called for ingredients that aren't available in modern times or are illegal, like yunno human body parts or something.

RedWiccan: You said you were in Japan right? Are you an international university student there or something? Your English seems really good.

OokamiDuran: Hah no... My guardian is half-British so we speak a lot of English at home is all.

RedWiccan: ;-P I see... I won't ask how old you are or anything then, don't want to get in trouble. Did ya have any other questions ya wanted answered?

OokamiDuran: There was one thing, but I'd want to make sure that you keep this to yourself. I'm nervous to share it with anyone, but I'm also worried about it.

RedWiccan: Don't worry; your secret is safe with me. :-)

OokamiDuran: Thank you. Just to warn you this might come off sounding a bit crazy. I'm only going to give the basic details that I'm worried about, since I worry about giving out too many things on the internet. Especially since we just met. No hard feelings though?

OokamiDuran: Alright... So a bunch of years ago, I got magically... infected I guess by a demon essence. It was a wolf-like demon, I dunno if that would be relevant. Anyway, for years there weren't any bad effects from it. But after my birthday last week, I have started having really sharp pains in the muscles under some of the old scars and they are changing colours. And kindof hot to the touch.

RedWiccan: Gosh... well are you okay otherwise? Because even if it is magically related, sometimes some of the physical symptoms can be treated by normal means. Like if you had a really bad fever you could take something for it. I mean the most important thing is that you're physically stable for now.

OokamiDuran: Yeah, nothing like that is happening, just the pain. Thank you for the advice there though, I didn't know that.

RedWiccan: heh, no problemo I'm here to help! Anyway... I dunno it sounds almost like transformation magic. See, my boyfriend I mentioned earlier? He's a werewolf. And he always says how the change is really painful. :-( But a bite or something would have effected you pretty much immediately from what I know. :-\

OokamiDuran: Transformation magic? Like I could be turning into some kindof demon or something?

RedWiccan: Hey, it's not as bad as it sounds. No really! Not all demons are evil. If you have someone there who can help you with the change you can live a perfectly normal life. Well, I mean depending on what kindof demon it is...

OokamiDuran: *sigh* I really hope that isn't what's happening. I do have someone here who would be able to help me, but I don't want to be a burden to her.

RedWiccan: Hey now. If she's someone who cares about you, being able to help you won't be a burden to her alright? Don't be afraid to ask for help. And I'm always willing to help if I can too, just drop me a PM on the boards alright?

OokamiDuran: Aak she just got home, so I gotta logoff. Thanks so much for your help. I added you on ICQ if that's alright? You seem pretty cool, and it's nice to have someone to talk to about this who doesn't think I'm crazy.

RedWiccan: Thanks, you too! Good luck, I hope you figure things out.

OokamiDuran(57-670-346)has logged off.

Natsuki quickly improperly powered down the computer by pulling the cord from the wall just as Midori was walking in the door from the dojo. "Hey Midori!" She greeted her voice at a higher pitch than normal.

Luckily Midori didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. She seemed to be in an extra cheerful mood actually. "Hey you! Hurry up! We've got naginatajutsu training with Shizuru this afternoon."

"Fine! Slave driver Watcher..." Natsuki grumbled playfully as she headed out to the dojo to get ready. She smiled to herself, looking forward to spending some time with Shizuru.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Natsuki growled as she squeezed the throttle harder on her bike, trying to get even a little more speed, laughing a bit as the engine complained loudly that it was already going as fast as it could. It had been ten days since the pain in her arms had started, and this morning when she had woken up she noticed that the old scars were now completely blackened. The only good sign that she could see was that they didn't hurt quite so much today, and the area was also much cooler. She hoped that she had just been worried over nothing. She still hadn't told anyone but RedWiccan about her problem.

She downshifted a bit as she came to a particularly sharp turn, bleeding off speed as she leaned into the tight curve. Tonight she was heading in to the city to deal with a slime demon that had been causing problems at one of the bus stops near the river. It was really close to a highway overpass too, and some of the homeless in the city that no one liked to admit existed had also been killed by the demon. She had her daishou blades strapped to her back and was ready for action. She didn't often get to use the katana and wakizashi pair, as openly carrying blades tended to get one some unwanted attention, so she was really looking forward to the chance. Still, she was a bit worried as she hadn't done any really heavy slaying since the pain started, just dusted the occasional vamp that didn't put up much fight.

It was late when she arrived at the bus stop, after midnight, and the streets around it were relatively deserted. Under the bridge about a half km away there were a couple of homeless men in tattered clothes leaning up against a concrete support. The Slayer surveyed the area, looking for any clues that might help her locate the slime demon. She glanced up, seeing the full moon peeking through, its soft white light being nearly drowned out by the light from the city reflecting off the clouds. She jumped her bike up onto the sidewalk, taking it offroad and closer to the rocky terrain along the river, keeping her speed slow hoping to look like good bait.

Hearing the sound of a bus approaching turned back to face the stop, her alert heightening as the bus screeched to a halt, its doors opening to allow several drunken looking business men to disembark. The men were laughing loudly and stumbling slightly as they made their way onto the sidewalk, with suit blazers draped across their arms and loosened, crooked neckties. One of the men was even still taking the occasional sip from a flask of something clearly strongly alcoholic. She followed them slowly at a distance, trying to keep the sound of her engine quiet enough that it wouldn't be easily heard over their conversation.

The trio had only made it about halfway to the bridge overpass when Natsuki saw an amorphous form oozing up from out of a nearby storm drain before slowly materializing into a hulking, vaguely humanoid form. _Of course, it's always the sewer._ She revved her engine, removing her hand not on the throttle to unsheathe the katana on her back, readying for what was likely to be a futile first strike. _But hopefully it will at least get it focused on me._

The drunken men did turn around at the high whine from the dirtbike's engine, their eyes widening, two of them giving rather womanly screams of surprise at the sight of the slime demon lurking behind them. The demon had only taken another few steps toward them when the Slayer sped by, slicing her katana neatly through one gelatinous leg. She kicked the gearshift and used her weight to assist in whipping the bike around to face the demon, her katana still held out in front of her facing the large greenish brown creature.

As she suspected the demon simply gave a gurgling laugh as slime dripping from his body quickly healed the sliced limb. She cut her engine and dismounted her bike, gently laying it down on its side. "If anyone touches that bike, they're next after I take care of Slimey here. Understood?" She growled out, certainly not willing to let some drunk that she was sticking her neck out for steal her prized possession. The three drunken men just nodded frantically, backing away with wobbly steps from the demon, afraid to take their eyes off of it.

Natsuki sighed to herself as she drew her wakizashi. Bladed weapons weren't really ideal for dealing with a reconstituting demon like this one. Sometimes they did have a single solid weak spot though that if you broke it they couldn't reform anymore, usually somewhere obvious like in the eyes... which would be easy if the demon wasn't eight feet tall. She rolled her shoulders, adjusting the sword hilts in leather-gloved hands, her katana in her right and the smaller wakizashi in her left. "Alright Splat!" She called out to the demon, "Let's get this started, I've got places to be."

The demon gave its squelching, gurgling chuckle and lumbered towards her, leaving globs of dirty slime on the ground in its path. She looked over the demon again as he charged her, casually sidestepping him as he got too close, turning to face him. _Great he's a Cyclops too, that just makes this even easier if I can figure out how to reach it._ She dodged a slime ball thrown at her head as she ran in close, hissing slightly as another hit her leg, burning into the smooth skin on her shin and calf muscle. A powerful sweeping cut of the katana completely severed both legs at the knees, causing the demon to lose several feet of height while it flailed its arms, trying to rapidly reform. Natsuki never gave it the chance, staying on the offensive dancing around her opponent; rapidly slicing bits completely off until the eye was within easy reach of her blades, earning several more acid burns on her skin for her troubles.

Raising her swords she quickly sliced both in opposite directions through the great eye that exploded in a spray of grey jelly, cursing when she saw the magic core fall out of the demon to roll down the sidewalk. The current form of the demon collapsed to the ground sending dirty globs of slime splashing everywhere as the magic core seemed to increase its speed down the street hoping to get away undetected. Natsuki charged after it and quickly shattered the brittle object between her boot and the sidewalk's concrete, wincing as bits of sharp, dirty glasslike dust flew up at speed, slicing into her legs. Still she grinned with satisfaction as the object was reduced to little more than bits of dirt.

Natsuki looked back and laughed when she saw the three drunken men passed out side by side on the sidewalk. She put her swords in one hand and grabbed her bike in the other, dragging them under the overpass so that she could wash her blades off in the river before heading home. Just as she had finished washing them and was getting ready to climb back on her bike, she felt a sharp pain unlike any she had experienced since the night of the ritual burn through her arms. She cried out and stumbled over to lean against the concrete piling as she tried to fight off the blinding pain, the darkening of her vision. For once the Slayer's body refused to ignore pain and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Natsuki opened her eyes, squinting at the glaring brightness of the sun overhead. She was leaning up against a rusty pale orange rock formation in the middle of a scrub desert. Hot packed white dirt and sand stretched horizon to horizon, interrupted by more of the rock formations along with the occasional scraggly brown shrub or tuft of grass trying desperately to survive in this harsh dry landscape.

She opened her eyes a bit more as they finally adjusted to the bright light and was not surprised to see Duran approaching from her right. She wondered idly how he could possibly be comfortable in this place with all of his fur. _Because this is just a dreamscape._

Natsuki just rolled her eyes, she really knew that. How else could she have gotten here so quickly from... wherever she just was. It had been still dark there... she looked up at Duran sharply, "Is my body safe? I think I passed out somewhere dangerous."

Duran nodded, _There are no demons around, and the meek ones who live under the bridge will not harm you. They were frightened by what they saw you do, and have retreated to another place for the night._

"Thanks Duran, it makes me feel better to know that you think about things like that whenever you bring me somewhere for a chat." Her voice was slightly sarcastic; she was annoyed that he waited until now. He wanted to talk to her just as she was in horrible pain? How could that be a coincidence? "I suppose this means you have some idea what's been happening to me the past week or so?"

The large wolf shifted from paw to paw, actually looking somewhat nervous as he turned large green eyes away from Natsuki to look at a small lizard sunning itself on a nearby rock. _Your body is finally strong enough to be granted the rest of my power. I suppose that if you had been given your power at this age or a little later like a normal Slayer you would have been given the power all at once. As it was, you needed time to grow nearer to your adult size._

Natsuki nodded, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, "And you brought me here now to explain yourself? After I spent these last few days wondering if I was dying or turning into some kindof demon or something? Or worse losing my Slayer powers!"

The wolf let out a soft whine; _I thought you would know that it was me. I didn't realize it would cause you to worry._

The Slayer let out a growl, "Of course it would. Being in horrible pain and old wounds changing colours are things that naturally cause most mortals to worry Duran." Seeing that the supernatural wolf clearly didn't understand where he'd gone wrong, Natsuki just sighed and let it drop. After all she was apparently still alive, and still had her Slayer powers. "So what did you want to explain again?"

Duran padded over and nosed her arm lightly, _It would be easier if you just looked._

"Huh?" She questioned as she ran her eyes down her bare arm. It looked the same as always, only with the now completely dark scars... Or at least it did until her eyes reached her fisted hands. She blinked a few times, not quite believing what she was seeing. There, jutting out from between her knuckles were metal-tipped boneclaws. They were about four inches in length, tapering from just over half an inch in diameter at the base near her knuckles, down to razor-sharp points at their tips. The entire length of them from the tips coated with some metal, to the base where they disappeared into her hands was coated in a thin sheen of blood. A small amount of blood was still oozing out around their base. "Um... Duran?" She asked her voice at least an octave higher than usual, "Did you... turn me into Wolverine?"

The wolf bared his teeth, attempting to imitate a human grin, _All of my demonic descendents have claws, I thought that my Chosen should as well._

"Uh... Thanks." She brought her right hand closer to her eyes to inspect her new claws more closely. "Not to sound ungrateful, but are they retractable or something? Because they could get in the way of normal human activities besides fighting. Not to mention make me really stand out in a crowd."

Duran nodded, _If you just think of how you want them to move, they will. Just like any other part of your body really. _He hesitated, _The only thing I couldn't seem to fix is they will cause you pain when you extend them._

Natsuki shrugged, "As long as the pain isn't quite as intense as it was when they were growing in I can deal with it. I'm a Slayer; pain is something I live with."

For a moment green eyes met, the wolf's shining with sadness, _Yes... I suppose you do know something of pain. A warrior's life will always have conflict. That is why I wanted to make sure I gave you this last gift. You will be tested soon._

The Slayer sighed, "I thought that might be the case. Most Slayers don't live as long as I have. I worry that I've just been lucky because none of the baddies really know I exist, since there's only supposed to be the One."

Duran's eyes twinkled, _Indeed. Though it appears that the Powers' Chosen has shaken things up. She managed to die and yet still live. Now there are Two._

Natsuki blinked, "Two real Slayers?"

_You are a real Slayer too. You are just not from the same family I suppose you could say. Don't be unsure of yourself or your abilities Natsuki._ The wolf rested a gentle paw on his Chosen's back. _It is only natural for a pup your age to question things, but don't question that. You are just as capable of being strong as they are._

"Thank you Duran." Natsuki yawned, her eyes feeling heavy. "I think... I have to go."

The wolf rubbed his warm nose against his Chosen's neck, _Be safe._ His eyes were sad as he watched the form of his Chosen slowly fade away.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Natsuki awoke with a start to the harsh sound of seagulls calling and the soft light of dawn. She groaned as she slowly sat up from her position slumped against hard concrete, her entire body hurt. She looked around, relieved to see that her bike was still lying on its side where she dropped it as she passed out. It didn't look too much worse for wear, though it seemed to have a bit of scraped paint she noted with a frown.

She blinked, suddenly remembering her dream with Duran. She looked down at her still gloved hands, but didn't notice any rip in the leather where claws could have come out. She carefully reached down and removed her gloves, shoving them into the pockets of the armoured leather jacket that lay on the ground beside her. Apparently she had been using it as a pillow. _How did that happen when I was unconscious? _

Gazing down at her hands, they looked the same as always. Her wrists would have been rather petite, but they were thickened by cords of muscle earned with years of wielding all manner of heavy weapons. Her palms were rough and calloused, and right now there was mud caked into the creases in the skin. Her fingers were short and thick with closely trimmed nails that were so dirty she might be mistaken for a vampire that had recently dug out of a grave. Both hands were liberally covered in scars of various sizes, some a fresh angry red others so pale they were barely visible unless you knew where to look.

They were a warrior's hands. But she still didn't see any signs of something as crazy as freaking claws. She slowly closed her fingers into fists, watching the small muscles in her hands moving under the skin, causing the veins and tendons to pop out in sharper relief. No claws. She thought back to her dream, trying to remember what Duran had said. That she just needed to feel that they were out? How was that supposed to feel exactly, it's not like she'd ever had claws before to know. What did Wolverine always do? Natsuki laughed, feeling more than a little insane as she thought about it that way.

Getting to her feet she let out a growl and punched her hands down at a forty-five degree angle, tensing all the muscles in her shoulders and arms. Then she bit down hard on the insides of her cheeks as she tried not to cry out at the sudden pain shooting down the muscles under her scars and into her hands. She winced at the sound of bones scraping against each other under her skin, and the sickening feeling of the soft tissue in her arms and hands ripping as something pushed through. Finally unable to hold it in, she let out the battle yell that she often used when charging into a nest of vamps, sending all of the nearby birds flying off chirping in panic.

Then the pain stopped. She looked down and there they were, dripping libations of her legendary Slayer blood onto the dirty concrete. _Well fuck me._ She brought her right fist up to examine the claws, and sure enough they looked just as they had in her dream. The hard gleaming metal on the sharp tips seemed silver in colour, though she couldn't tell if it was actually silver or some other metal. The base of each claw did indeed seem to be made of bone. She wondered idly if they would grow back if they somehow got broken off, even as she winced at how painful that would likely be.

Acting on a hunch she thought of withdrawing just the claws on her right hand, and was pleased to note that retracting them wasn't nearly as painful. Her eyes widened in surprise as the wounds the claws had exited through almost immediately healed over. Grinning she used the claws on her left hand and opened up some deep gashes on her right bicep, only to frown when they didn't heal over in a similarly speedy fashion. Bracing herself she reextended the claws on her right hand, pleased to note that while it was still rather painful, it wasn't nearly as excruciating as it had been the first time, smirking a little at the dirty thought that brought to mind. Looking back up at the sky she realized that she should hurry up and head home as it was already nearly midmorning.

She walked into the house thirty minutes later to see Midori sitting at the counter in front of the computer which was happily creating a variety of multicoloured plumbing on its monitor. She was dressed in her street clothes and there was a mug of cold coffee on the counter near her. She was probably trying to look like she hadn't been up all night worrying. It was a failed attempt though, because she was sound asleep, her glasses had fallen off her face as she snoozed, her head resting on her arms. _Aaw, my poor Watcher._ When she had first become a Slayer Natsuki had thought that she could never sit still again, but lately she found that she could enjoy being still if she was watching someone she cared about, especially Shizuru or Midori. She guessed it was because being able to see her loved ones safe and happy was one of the main reasons that she trained so hard to be a good Slayer.

Natsuki walked quietly up behind the slumbering redhead, wrapping her in a gentle hug. She nuzzled into her Watcher's neck, blinking in surprise when she realized the redhead smelled different than normal. "Midori." She called softly into her Watcher's ear, smiling as the woman just mumbled something and burrowed her face into her arms. "Come on Midori, you're gonna be sore if you sleep like that any longer."

"Huh, wha?" Hazel eyes opened slowly, blinking at the morning light flooding into the kitchen. "Oh Natsuki, you're home." She smiled sheepishly; looking up into her Slayer's shining green eyes. "I guess I fell asleep doing research."

The Slayer sighed softly, running her hand through the long red hair, liking how it looked falling over the older woman's shoulders, for once not tied back in a ponytail. "You were staying up late because you were waiting for me to get home." She grabbed her Watcher's glasses off the counter, playfully placing them back on her face. "I'm sorry I made you worry."

Midori just shook her head, "If you're okay, it's fine. What happened last night? Did you have trouble with that slime demon? I didn't think there was anything special about it..."

"No it wasn't that. Your research was spot on as always." Natsuki looked down at her Watcher's hands where they were picking at the cuff of the wrinkled white oxford shirt. "Something's been happening to me the past week or so that I haven't told you about because I didn't want to worry you." Sensing Midori's sharp glance even though she wasn't looking her in the eye, Natsuki hastily continued, "But I figured out that it's no big deal now anyway so I was worried over nothing, so we don't have to worry. I'm sorry I was out so late, it won't happen again."

Midori reached out and squeezed a muscled shoulder gently, causing the Slayer to raise guilty green eyes to her own. "Natsuki, you know that explanation isn't going to cut it right?" She asked softly, "You know I'm not going to yell at you don't you? I just want you to trust me. Let me help you."

Natsuki felt tears in her eyes at the pleading tone in her Watcher's voice, the weight of her worry from the last week finally catching up to her. It seemed like she was always getting things wrong, even though she knew Midori wanted to be able to help, she never wanted to share her problems because they made her feel like a burden. "I'm sorry." She backed away from her Watcher and slowly removed the leather glove from her left hand, holding her fist out over the cream colour counter top. "Stay back for a moment, I don't want to hurt you." She said without explanation. Taking a deep breath, she bit down hard on her tongue, holding her Watcher's eyes as she extended her claws, hearing Midori's surprised gasp and the quiet drip of her blood as it fell, darkening the light marble.

She then reached up with her right hand and pulled up the ripped sleeve of the black shirt she had been wearing so that Midori could see the change in her scars. "They started changing that to that colour ten days ago. Last night I passed out and had a Slayer dream about the claws and when I woke up this morning, I realized it wasn't just weird dream symbolism." She explained succinctly, leaving out the part about her panicked worrying and the excruciating pain. Natsuki quickly went to the sink and washed off the worst of the blood from the claws, ignoring the slight sting as the water splashed onto the open wounds. She then walked back over to Midori, slowly offering her left hand to her Watcher to examine. "And you thought I was just kidding about the Wolverine stuff." She quipped.

Midori just stared at the claws; her eyes alight with that scientific curiosity she got when she stumbled across a particularly interesting research topic. "Natsuki these are astounding! None of the Watcher diaries ever mentioned anything remotely like this."

The dark haired girl shrugged and spoke softly, "Well we've always known that I'm not exactly a Slayer. Just close enough."

The redhead gave Natsuki a soft kiss on her cheek, "As far as I'm concerned, you're the best Slayer. Until I met you I trained my whole life hoping that someday I could be a Watcher for a Slayer with even some of your dedication and skill. Natsuki, I've read Watcher diaries about Slayers who liked their calling, but didn't take training seriously and ended up getting killed because of it. Or Slayers who just trained even though they hated it, who thought that being Chosen was a horrible curse so they were always miserable even if they took their training seriously enough to do well. You though... you seem to really enjoy being a Slayer despite all the difficulties and risks, and you're so dedicated to bettering your skills. I'm not saying I don't worry about you all of the time, but Natsuki being your Watcher has truly been the most amazing thing in my life. You really make me proud Natsuki. Don't doubt yourself just because you didn't come by the destiny the traditional way." Midori pleaded her voice rough.

"Thanks Midori... I'll try to let that go." Natsuki sighed retracting her claws, and then smiled slyly as she thought of something to lighten the mood. "So, did you and Yohko-sensei have a good time last night?" She laughed as her Watcher blushed hotly, unable to find the right words to explain herself. Natsuki grinned, "Hey it's alright. I want you to be happy. And she's not even a senior citizen, so that's great."

Midori rolled her eyes, "You're really not going to ever let me live that down are you? It was just the one older man, and he was this super-intelligent mentor of mine who seemed to always have the answers to everything. You couldn't really understand at your age I guess."

Studying her Watcher's face carefully, Natsuki thought secretly that she just might understand, but she didn't want to say anything to make Midori feel awkward. "Hey, you wanna hang out for a bit while I play Final Fantasy VIII?" At Midori's indifferent shrug, Natsuki grinned. "Great! Just let me make the popcorn and stuff. You go lie down on the sofa and get comfy; I'll just sit on the floor." A half hour later Natsuki looked over from watching Rinoa tumbling helplessly through the dark vacuum of space to see that Midori was sprawled out on her back, sound asleep. She smiled sadly at the sight, noting with guilt how the little lines around her Watcher's eyes seemed deeper and that even in sleep she had a worried expression on her face. Natsuki reached out a hand to gently rub the bridge of the redhead's nose where she always got a wrinkle in her skin when worried, and then leaned in to kiss her cheek feeling better when Midori smiled in her sleep in response. _I'm sorry I made you worry about me again. I promise I'll do better._ She turned back to her game, feeling a flutter in her heart as Squall reached Rinoa just in time. She shivered as she remembered Duran's warning in her dream, and offered a silent prayer that she would always be just in time to save the ones she loved.

_ "The last thing she'll see is me protecting her."_


End file.
